I Choose
by PensiveGirl
Summary: Percy thinks he was right in choosing immortality, but being a god is far from a walk in the park! Apparently living forever doesn't entitle you to a get-out-of-jail-free pass when it comes to Olympians messing with your life. Lots of surprises!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything of Percy Jackson, or anyone else.**

**Just to let everyone know... I am a HUGE HUGE Percabeth fan, but I wanted to see what would happen if Percy chose immortality.**

Immortality. Me. The words just didn't seem to fit together in my head. I turned back to Annabeth. She looked as white as a sheet and like she was about to faint, which believe me; Annabeth did _not_ look like that often. It only made the choice harder. It closed my eyes and tried to picture myself bold, glowing and immortal, but all the pictures I formed in my head just turned out plain wrong.

"Er, Percy?" my dad said, leaning forward on his throne with concern. "Are you okay?"

I realized that my face probably looked like I was having a brain aneurism and quickly tried to smile.

"Yeah, I'm... uh… still thinking about it."

"We don't have all day boy," Zeus rumbled. "Choose."

Aargh, this was impossible. I tried weighing the pros and cons in my head. They seemed to be pretty balanced. My human future would be annihilated, but I would have a brand new eternity-future in Olympus. I wouldn't have to worry about monsters chasing my anymore, but I would never get a chance to retire from work for all of eternity. I wouldn't get to stay with Annabeth, but I would get… Calypso.

That thought suddenly tipped the scaled like a ton of bricks had just been dumped onto it.

I remembered back to Ogygia, and how lovely it had been with Calypso. She was beautiful, caring, and sweet. I would be able to go visit her if I was a god, and I wouldn't have to leave Annabeth or Grover for long either. It seemed like I was getting the best of both worlds. Heck, if I was a god, I may even be able to change my appearance, so I would be able to look the same age as my friends when I visited them.

"I've decided," I said quickly, before I could change my mind.

"And?"

"I have decided… to become immortal."

"Splendid!" Poseidon boomed. "Percy, my boy, it's going to be great having you around! You can have your own wing of the palace, and you'll be able to take care of some of my lesser affairs---"

"Yes, yes," Dionysus waved his hand impatiently "It will be just great, but can we please get a move on? I have a couple after-battle parties to crash."

Suddenly realizing Annabeth, I turned back to see what she had thought of my choice, but I was too late. I caught a glimpse of a blonde-haired head tearing from the room, strangled sobs cutting through the cheery mood like a knife. I immediately felt guilty. But this was my gift, and I was going to choose what I wanted. Besides, I wasn't even sure if Annabeth liked me the way I liked her. And it wasn't as if I was leaving forever, just the opposite, I was staying forever. But it just seemed like I was trying to convince myself of that.

"Don't worry, young Perseus," Athena said, drawing back my attention to the gods "Annabeth will get over it eventually."

"Right," I said.

"Well, now that everything is all set, I suppose I'll have to grant this young hero's wish now," said Zeus, straightening up and brandishing his lightning bolt.

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The island of Ogygia was just the same as I had remembered. I stepped onto the sandy beach and immediately felt calm. My immortal body was still getting some used to, but I worked it in like my old pair or Reeboks, and day by day it was getting better.

"P-P-Percy Jackson?" a sweet voice came from between to trees. "What are you d-doing here?"

Calypso came into view. She was just as beautiful as I had remembered her. Caramel braid, almond eyes, white dress… dazed expression. I couldn't help grinning like an idiot when I saw her, even though she seemed more like she was going to faint.

"I-I don't understand," she gulped. "How…" Then her eyes widened as she took in my more powerful shape (and I must say, I had developed some serious muscle since my immortalization).

"You're… immortal," she whispered.

"Uh hunh," I said. It was all I could think of to say.

Suddenly Calypso flew at me with astonishing speed. One moment she was leaning faintly on the tree, the next second she was giving me the tightest hug I had ever experienced. I hugged her back, happier than I had felt in a long time.

When we broke apart, I explained the recent turn of events to Calypso. I think that girl was in serious need of some entertainment, because she was enraptured by every word I said, even when I told her about cleaning my room, or eating ice cream.

"Ice cream," she said sadly "I have never tried this dessert."

"Don't worry," I grinned, "I'll bring you back some next time I visit."

Suddenly Calypso's face turned form sad to terrified.

"But, you're not leaving so soon are you?" she pleaded, hanging tightly on my arm "You can stay for a while… please?"

"Course I'm staying!" I cried, horrified that she had jumped to that conclusion.

"Good," she smiled. "I want to show you my garden, it's grown since you're last visit! But first…"

Calypso leaned up and kissed me straight on the lips. I was jolted like an electric current had zapped me, but didn't pull away. It seemed like I had made the right decision after all. I had friends, a long busy life ahead, and a… girlfriend maybe? What more else could I possibly as for?


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for the reviews!**

Calypso led me through the trees and to her garden. It was mind-boggling to see how much it had improved. The garden was overflowing with life and growth. Roses and honeysuckle grew layers thick on their trellises, and the sunflowers were swaying in the light breeze, while lupins and foxgloves mingled in between the lilies and a million other flowers that I could not identify with a name. The scents were not overpowering, as they probably would have been in a normal garden, but complimented each other. The effect was very nice.

"It's as beautiful as ever," I said earnestly, but couldn't help glancing to the girl beside me as I said it.

Calypso blushed with pleasure.

"It's my pride and joy," she said smiling. "Tell me Percy, did you plant a garden in this Manhattan place for me?"

"I guess I did!" I said, remembering the sprig of moonlace that I planted back at home, and felt a pang of longing for Mom. I hadn't seen her since… well in a while. I wasn't sure how I was going to break it all to her, though I suspected she had already found out.

Calypso noticed my momentary preoccupation and her brow creased in worry.

"Percy, you did not say before, but how long are you staying?"

"Well, not… forever," I admitted. "There are some other things I've got to do. But maybe a day or so?"

"A day," Calypso mused. "Such a short time."

"It's not that I don't want to stay! It's just… Dad wants me back soon to help with the restoration of his palace. You understand, right?"

"You are needed with your family; I understand that," she nodded. Then her face brightened "But let us not dwell on what is to come! We can enjoy our time together now. Would you like something to eat?"

Though I didn't actually need food to live anymore, I would never pass up a good meal on any occasion. Calypso's food wasn't exactly my the mouthwatering cheeseburger and fries type or my Mom's blue cookies, but on the other hand, I could have raccoon poop and it would still have tasted good on Ogygia. We talked as we ate and I was having a blast, but there was one important thing that I needed to sort out first.

"Um, Calypso," I said after swallowing a mouthful of hot apple pie (so she wouldn't get a glimpse of my chewed up food).

"Yes, Percy?"

"I was… uh, wondering…" it was hard to find the right words. I mean, I wasn't prepared to flat-out ask Calypso to be my girlfriend, but man, did I ever want it bad. She had confessed that she loved me, but that was, you know, a year ago, and I didn't know if any of the human dating rules applied to gods as well.

"… Percy?" I could see Calypso starting to smile and I had a feeling she already knew that I was struggling to get out.

"Right. Well, I was just going to ask about… us. Last year---"

"Last year I told you I loved you," Calypso finished without hesitation. She had really nailed the whole confidence thing. "And I still do. Who else do I have to love? You are the last hero that I healed and my feelings for you remain."

I couldn't help grinning even though some of what she said disturbed me.

"So, we're going out now then?"

A girlish giggle bubbled from Calypso's lips and she wound her fingers in mine.

"Has love made you forgetful, Percy? I am marooned on Ogygia for eternity. There is no where we can go!"

I blinked and stared blankly at her for a second before I got it. My face grew hot, but I laughed as well.

"Sorry, it's an expression we use nowadays. Going out is like dating, being a couple, boyfriend girlfriend, umm…" I racked my brains for the expression they would have used in Calypso's time. "Courting?"

"Oh, I see now!" she smiled shyly at me. "And yes, if you want to, we can "go out" as you call it."

I got a warm fuzzy feeling inside when she said that. With Calypso's fingers still entwined with mine, I got up from the table and suggested we go for a walk or something. So hand in hand, we sauntered around the shoreline, not talking, but just being together.

I guess after that I just forgot how much time was passing. It was like I was riding on a cloud of happiness and my head hadn't come back to Earth yet. Calypso and I talked, walked, swam, gardened and even did a little kissing since there was no one around to see us. It wasn't until we were taking a moonlit cruise in her little rowboat that I suddenly broke the trance I had been in.

"Holy Kronos!"

"Mmm?"

I adjusted my position, forcing Calypso to move her head from its place at my chest, so we were now face to face.

"How long have I been here?"

She sighed.

"How many times do I have to remind you Percy? Time moves differently here; I have no idea."

"But… but," I frantically sifted through my memories trying to calculate. There was the night we planted more moonlace, the night we did some stargazing, the night on the beach when we… well… yeah, that night. Then there was tonight. Had I been here four days? Dad was going to kill me!

Calypso didn't take her eyes off my face as I turned the boat back towards the shore.

"You're leaving." It was a statement not a question.

"I have to."

"I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too," I said as the boat scraped gently on the sand. I helped her out. "But I promise I'll come back."

"Good luck then Percy," she said sadly, leaning up to kiss my forehead as she had done the last time.

_Yeah really_, I thought grimly, picturing the faces of Amphitrite and Triton in my head. _Good luck is right._

And with one last squeeze of Calypso's hand, I closed my eyes and got ready to re-meet the rest of my Dad's family.


	3. Chapter 3

God travel is a lot like shadow traveling but without the creepiness and the feeling-like-your-face-is-going-to-be-peeled-off stuff. I closed my eyes, pictured Poseidon's palace – or what was left of it – and poof! I was swimming in the ocean.

I was thankful that I could breathe underwater, because it looked like I was miles and miles under the surface. Dad's realm stretched endlessly around me in all directions. I have to say, the place looked a lot worse than when I had last seen it, but at least there were no monsters. Almost half of the abalone buildings were crumbled. The coral gardens looked faded and fragile. Whole temples had been smashed to smithereens. The only thing that hadn't seemed affected by the wrath of Oceanus, the sea Titan, was the sea life. It made me a little happier to see the octopi, sharks, and multicolored fish still swimming as if nothing had happened. The only odd thing was that I didn't see any mermen.

I swam towards a great white shark that was milling around nearby. And no, I wasn't asking to be eaten. I just wanted directions.

"Do you know where I can find Poseidon?" I asked the shark.

"In the courtyard Perseus Jackson," he replied in a gravelly voice. "Rallying the people. He will be happy to see you, lord."

"Thanks man," I said. "And you don't have to call me lord."

I could have sworn I saw the shark roll his eyes before swimming off.

It didn't take me long to spot the courtyard. The hundreds of mermen and mermaids gathering there sort of gave it away. At the front of the group stood Poseidon, and I was glad to see that he looked dad-aged, a sign that his realm was still strong. I had to swim closer to hear what he was saying to all of them.

"...take your group to the Eastern wall. We need that rebuilt as soon as possible. Maven, your team is needed at the Aqua Temple. Leila, take your sisters to the anemone garden and sing it back to health."

As the cluster of amber-haired mermaids swam off, Dad caught sight of me floating above the courtyard. His face broke into a smile.

"Percy!" he called "Come on down, my son! You're just in time."

All heads turned as soon as they heard that. I guess I was hoping for a warm welcome from the mermen. You know, some smiles and maybe little clapping. I was the son of their ruler, and I _had_ helped in saving Olympus after all. They should be happy, right?

Wrong.

I got just about two hundred steely stares and one grin… from my dad.

"I want the rest of you to divide up in small groups and help wherever it's needed," he instructed, and waved his trident to dismiss the remaining mermen.

"Hey Dad," I said coming to rest on the smooth sea floor. "How's the restoration going?"

He shrugged. "As good as I expected. My people are a little upset, of course---"

"Yeah, I noticed."

"Don't blame them, Percy," Poseidon put his hand on my shoulder. "They have just had their city destroyed. It will take time for them to get over it."

I nodded. Hey, it wasn't hard to understand.

"So what do you want me to---" I started, but stopped as Triton entered the courtyard.

His green face clouded over when he saw me. But it happened so quickly that I wasn't sure if I had imagined it or not. Suddenly Triton was smiling, but I noticed his eyes stayed unfriendly.

"Ah, Percy. The great immortal hero had joined us at last."

"Now Triton..." Poseidon warned, but I was already wounded by Triton's remark.

"How long have I been away?" I asked.

"Five days," Triton smirked.

Man, this guy was really getting on my nerves.

"Well I'm here now. How can I help?"

My dad clapped me on the back. "That's the spirit, son. How about you and Triton go and fix up the game room? That should keep you busy, and give you some... uh... brotherly bonding time."

Triton looked like he'd rather bond with a giant squid with razor sharp teeth than with me, but he just said, "As you wish Father," and turned to leave.

I went to follow him but Poseidon stopped me.

"One more thing, Percy. I think this will make swimming a little easier." And with a wave of his trident I found myself sporting a double fish tail. It a teal version of Triton's, and shimmered when I moved. Grinning, I gave my tail a flip, and was suddenly zooming towards the far-off ocean surface. I executed a perfect flip and shot back down to the courtyard. Unfortunately, Amphitrite had joined Poseidon and Triton.

"Thanks Dad," I said, avoiding her gaze.

"Welcome Jackson," Amphitrite said, and I was forced to look at her. She was beautiful, of course, but had the same mask of friendliness that Triton wore. My relationship with them obviously needed a little work. Maybe there was a counselor, or something, down here that we could go see.

"Hello Amphitrite," I said.

She looked me up and down, her gaze coming to rest on my two tails. Her lips tightened.

"I was just sending Percy and Triton to the game room," Dad said hurriedly. I took that as my cue to go.

"See you later," I said. I flipped myself around and swam off, narrowly missing a stone pillar. Triton was up ahead, gliding through the damaged hallway. The merman saluted him when he passed. I didn't even get a glance. Where was the justice in that?

------

Now I haven't been in many game rooms, but even if I had, my dad's would have knocked them all out of the court without even breaking a sweat. I'm telling you, this place was enormous, and filled with enough stuff to keep me happy for at least another fifty years. Well, if any of it worked, that is.

Ms. Pac-Man had fallen into one of the abalone walls so the rest of the vintage arcade games were on a slant. Most of the screens were smashed. The fooseball table was flipped over and badly charred. And one of the pool tables looked like it had been stepped clean through by something roughly the size of a Lastrygonian giant.

"This is the damage that Oceanus caused to my home," Triton said. "Our father tries to put on a positive face, but it will be centuries before it is restored to its original glory." He glared at me.

"Look, I'm sorry," I said. "I did what I had to do to save Olympus. Isn't that enough for you?"

"You saved one realm, but destroyed another."

"And you think that if I let Kronos take over, your palace would be saved?" I couldn't believe this guy.

"We were managing fine on our own," Triton snarled. "We didn't need you to interfere."

"I helped to destroy Kronos, which by the way, saved all of your skins, and you're treating me like I did something wrong. What's your problem?"

"What's my problem? I'll tell you what my problem is," Triton glided forward, crushing a Wii remote under his tail. Except this one wasn't made of plastic, it was made of solid gold. And Triton crushed it. I gulped.

"I am the eldest son and heir of Poseidon," he said with such conviction that I half expected him to order me to bow before him. "When I found out that he had another son, I was a little upset. But I tried not to let that bother me. You, after all, were only a mortal. But soon all my father talked about was you. Percy Jackson, this. Percy Jackson, that. 'One moment, I have to co check up on Percy. Sorry son, I won't be able to go see your chariot race. I have to go to Percy's birthday party'. Blah blah blah. And now you're immortal and I'm supposed to develop a 'brotherly bond' with you. Ha!"

It took a second for all of this to sink in. Could Triton be… jealous of me? I remembered back to when Poseidon and I had been talking about Antaeus. He said that _I_ was his favourite son. Was that counting Triton? Or was he different?

"Look, how about we just try to fix this place up and fix our… issues… later."

Triton grunted, and swam over to where a chunk of the wall had been blown out. I went to the opposite side of the room where the same thing seemed to have happened. Shards of abalone were scattered all over the ground. I fingered a piece the size of my palm and tried to figure out how I would manage to put the wall back together. But it seemed like I had even bigger issues to resolve.

**Thoughts? Suggestions? Leave me a review. :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm so so so so so sorry that it's been this long since my last update! But exams are this week and the next and I have to study... boo hoo :( Just bear with me until they're over, because I promise this story is about to get a LOT more interesting! **

**For everyone who wanted some Annabeth... she's in chapter five, I promise! And I also changed the summary since I actually know where I'm going with this story now!**

I had just put the last piece of broken abalone in place when I was hit by something very large and with a very strong grip. At first I thought I was being strangled, but then I realized I was only getting a hug.

"Whoa Tyson!" I choked, extracting myself from my half-brother's grip. "Easy, man."

Tyson was grinning from ear to ear.

"I am happy to see you!" he said "Daddy did not tell me you were coming!"

"I'm glad to see you to, buddy," I replied, smiling.

Tyson didn't answer immediately. He was looking at my lumpy attempt of a wall.

"Did you fix that, Percy?" He asked.

"Um… yeah. I could have done better, but---"

"It's perfect! Me and the other Cyclopes are fixing stuff too!" Tyson motioned to another eager young Cyclopes who was struggling to lift a solid gold ping-pong table by himself.

"Awesome!" I still found it pretty hard to believe that my little brother was one of the Cyclopes head-honchos. To me, he was just, well… Tyson. Then I noticed the club he held in one hand. "Hey, is that new?"

"Yeah! Zeus gave me a better stick!" Tyson proudly cradled his club like it was a new-born baby, even though it looked much bigger, and could probably cause a few more cracked skulls than his old one.

I was just about to answer when we both heard a squeaky "Ouch!" The poor eager Cyclopes seemed to have somehow gotten himself jammed under the gold fooseball table and was looking pleadingly at Tyson.

"Um, I'm going to go help now," Tyson said sheepishly, and rushed away.

I was just about to go find Triton and try to clear up some other things, when the fountain in the corner of the game room caught my eye. It was ten feet tall with three tiers, all showing scenes of my dad in some epic battle with various sea monsters. Now you may think that a fountain under the sea would be stupid. I would probably think that too, except this fountain wasn't spouting water. Bubbles of all shapes and sizes (and yes, there is such thing as a square bubble when you're an Olympian) cascaded from the top. They would float in little clusters for a couple seconds, then would bounce all the way to the bottom tier where they disappeared. Each bubble shimmered with a mini rainbow, like the soap bubbles kids play with.

I swam a little closer and blinked a couple times. Maybe it was just me, but I could have sworn that for a second that I saw the face of Chiron from Camp Half-Blood reflected in a bubble that reminded my vaguely of an umbrella.

The umbrella-bubble bounced slowly down to my eye-level. By the time it reached me, the rainbow had grown five times its size, and I found myself face to face with the old centaur, through the Iris message.

"Hey Chiron," I said. I hadn't seen him since my immortalization so that made me a little apprehensive. He was smiling, though. That was a good sign.

"Hello, Percy," Chiron said kindly. "How goes your work?"

"Pretty good," I replied, wondering where this conversation was going. It didn't seem likely that Chiron would waste a drachma just to check up on me. "What about camp? What's happening there?"

"Oh, we're recovering. Bit by bit. There are still some things to be taken care of, straggling monsters to be rounded up and destroyed, the usual. But it's nothing we can't handle, of course."

"Great! Hey Chiron, what ever happened to Rachel Elizabeth Dare? I haven't seen her since the battle finished. Do you know if she's okay?"

"Miss Dare is back with her family. She left just after the Gods arrived on Mount Olympus. **(A/N: since Hades' kids are still outcasts, the Oracle couldn't have another host.) **She seemed all right, just a little dejected. I suppose being a mortal made her feel left out. Listen, can you deliver a message to your father for me?"

"Oh, uh, sure," I said, thrown off by the change of topic.

"Tell him that things are going fine, okay?"

"Yeah, no problem," I said "So things are going fine for what?"

"It's nothing of importance," Chiron said hurriedly. I was smart enough not to pry. "As long as you deliver the message, that's all I need. Thank you very much Percy, I'll see you---"

"Hold it Chiron," I said. "You haven't told me how Annnabeth is."

Chiron's hindquarters shifted uneasily. I could tell this was a topic he hoped we would avoid. I could feel my heart sinking.

"Annabeth is better. At first she was very upset, as you can imagine, but Clarisse and the other campers are being a great help to her. Grover is very busy, but he coping nicely. Don't feel too bad though, Percy. It will take your friends some time to get used to. I think the only thing you can do is talk to them."

"Right," I said, my mouth feeling dry. Talking to Annabeth was like asking for a punch in the face. I mean, it wouldn't hurt me but it was the thought that counted. "Thanks."

"Well, I must get going. But I hope I'll see you soon."

"Bye, Chiron," I said, but the Iris message had already ended and the umbrella-shaped bubbled popped in my face. All I got was a mouthful of air.

The cyclopses were clearing out with the games to be repaired, and already the game room was looking much cleaner. I didn't think there was much else to do, so I decided to go and see if I could take a short trip to Camp Half-Blood. I felt sorta bad, for wanting to leave so soon after I arrived, but it was worth a try anyhow. Besides, I had that message form Chiron to deliver.

I swam past a sour Triton and made my way to the main portion of the palace where I guessed Poseidon's rooms would be. Sure enough, I heard loud voices coming from an enormous cavern with a curtain of seaweed covering the entrance. It sounded like Amphitrite, and she wasn't using her 'inside voice'.

"It's not enough," she was shouting "That I have to deal with the Jackson boy. Now there's this as well! What kind of a woman do you take me for, Poseidon? Do you expect me to forgive you? Forget this ever happened? Your pathetic apologies mean nothing. You may be lord of the sea, but if you would like to stay lord of my heart you had better behave!"

I thought Poseidon would blast her or something for talking to him like that, but apparently he still wanted to stay 'lord of her heart'.

"My dear… be reasonable."

"This discussion is over," Amphitrite replied. Before I could swim away, she brushed out of the room and left without looking at me. Feeling a little more depressed, I pushed aside the seaweed curtains and entered my father's room.

It was similar to all the other rooms, but I noticed that the walls were patterned in tiny pearls. It was a subtle difference that made the chamber worthy of the god. Poseidon was sitting in an enormous clam-shaped chair that reminded me of the ones from the movie The Little Mermaid. His head was in his hands, and he looked thoroughly worn out.

"Hey Dad," I said.

"Hello Percy."

"I was just, uh, wondering..." but the words died in my throat. Now didn't seem like the time to ask if I could go to Camp Half-Blood.

Poseidon sighed. "How much did you hear?"

"Just the end," I admitted. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing of importance," he said hurriedly, which struck me as weird, since that was he exact same thing that Chiron had said. "But," he added, smiling a little. "I suppose now I'll have to build my wife a new palace in the tropics to make it up to her."

I laughed, but it was only to make him feel better.

"Well, I didn't want to bother you, but I was just talking to Chiron. He had a message for you."

My dad sat up straighter.

"And?" he inquired.

"He said to tell you that things are going fine."

Poseidon leaned back in his chair. He looked more at ease.

"Good, good," he said. "Well that sure is a relief. Is that all?"

"Yeah, that was it, but we also talked about my friends, and I was wondering if---"

"... if you could go visit them?" Poseidon supplied helpfully.

"Well, yeah."

"Okay."

"Wait... what?"

"You have my permission to go," Dad shrugged.

"But what about you're palace, or Amphitrite, or Triton?"

"Oh, I can take care of them," Poseidon waved it away. "I didn't expect you to just drop all of your friends and old life when you became immortal. My palace will be repaired, and chances are, my family would still... um... dislike you whether you stayed or not. It's more important that your friends don't hate you, son."

"Wow, thanks Dad. And if there's anything I can do to help with Amphitrite..."

Poseidon chuckled nervously. "I don't think you'd be much help, Percy. But thanks for the offer. Oh, and wait. Before you go, I have something for you," he seemed to pull a piece of paper form thin air, and handed it to me. My pace quickened. It was a letter from my mother. On one side, I could see the scribbled not of apologies and excuses I had sent minutes after I became immortal. The other side had a neatly written letter in my mother's plain printing. I felt a pang of regret as I noticed the faint remains of tearstains.

_Dear Percy,_

_I've written and re-written this letter a hundred times over, trying to find the words to describe how I feel---_

I stopped as it dawned on me that I could actually read the words on the page. My dyslexia had disappeared!

_Above all I'm proud, Percy. I hope you know that. You saved Olympus and probably the rest of the world too. I don't think any mother can brag that their son did that. As for your choices, I can't blame you for that you chose. It makes me sad to think that I'll never see you grow up or go to college, and that I'll never have ordinary, mortal grandkids. But it makes me happier to think that I won't have to worry about you being attacked by monsters or getting hit by a bus on the way to school. I love you, Percy, and no mater that you are, mortal or god, I'll always love you. Please come see me sometime. But not for another week, since Paul is taking me down to Orlando for a little vacation._

_Love, Mom_

_PS. Paul sends his love too._

I didn't realize I was crying until Poseidon handed me a piece of kelp to blow my nose on.

"Thanks," I said, handing it back to my dad who sent it away on a small current.

"There, there," Dad said, patting my back. "Your mother is an amazing, talented, strong woman. She'll be fine."

"I know," I said. "It's just..."

"Immortality takes some time, Percy. Wait another century and I don't think you'll regret your choice."

"Thanks Dad."

"No problem, son."

"So... I'm going to camp now?"

"As a god, I say there's no time to bother with the feelings of others. But as a Dad, I think your friends are much too important in your life to give up. As long as you don't take _too_ long, I'm okay with it."

"Right," I promised.

Poseidon started reading a stack of papers from a side table, and I took it that I was dismissed. Feeling a little apprehensive, I left the room and started swimming upwards. My dad's palace shrank smaller and smaller until I was nearly at the surface. Suddenly I felt a tingling sensation in my tail. Looking down, I realized that I no longer _had_ a tail but a pair of normal legs in an average pair of jeans. It took me a minute to figure out how to swim normally again but after a little while, I climbed out of the water, onto the sandy beach of Camp Half-Blood.

**Hope you liked it! :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, so I promise this will be the last time you have to wait a week for an update! Exams are finishing up and I will have unlimited time to write! Yay!**

It was mid-afternoon when I arrived at Camp Half-Blood. No one was on the beach, which suited me just fine. I navigated stealthily across the camp to the woods, where I figured I could hide until I found Annabeth. In the best possible situation, I could be there, talk to Annabeth, and leave before any of the other campers saw me (Grover was away on satyr Lord-of-the-Wild business). I didn't think their reactions would be along the lines of _"Hey! It's Percy, the hero traitor who abandoned us and made Annabeth cry. Let's give him a hug!" _

Unfortunately, I had just barely reached the forest when something large and hairy knocked me down and started licking me all over. It seemed that not _everyone_ was mad at me for choosing immortality. In half a second I was absolutely covered in Mrs. O'Leary's dog spit.

"WOOF!" the giant hellhound barked, sending a cloud of sparrows fleeing for their lives.

"Shush girl!" I hissed, closing Mrs. O'Leary's mouth with both of my hands. "I'm trying to stay inconspicuous, okay?"

I have no idea how a dog knew what inconspicuous meant, but it sure shut Mrs. O'Leary up. She sat down with a _thump_ on the ground so that we were at eye level.

"Do you know where Annabeth is?" I asked, patting her nose. "Can you take me to her?"

Mrs. O'Leary leaped up, gave a quiet bark, and took off through the trees. I darted after her, praying that I wasn't being led to the middle of the amphitheatre of the sword-fighting arena. Fortunately for me, she stopped short a couple wards from Zeus's Fist and promptly sat down on my foot. At that moment I was pretty glad I couldn't get hurt anymore because man, was she heavy. I followed Mrs. O'Leary's gaze and saw Annabeth and Juniper perched on a boulder. Dealdelus's laptop was sitting on Annabeth's lap.

My heart leapt when I saw her. From what I had gotten from Chiron, I had pictured Annabeth crying constantly, not talking to anyone… you get my point. But it seemed to me that besides a faint redness around her grey eyes, Annabeth was perfectly fine. She and Juniper were pouring over something on the laptop. By the looks of it, Annabeth was showing Juniper the designs she had for Olympus. Taking a deep breath, I stepped out of the trees.

"Oh!" Juniper blushed green the second she saw me and disappeared into the Juniper bushes. But I wasn't paying attention to her. My eyes were only on my best friend.

I saw a range of emotions shadowed on her face. Shock, joy, betrayal, hate, fear, regret, and something else I didn't recognize. But before I could say anything, Annabeth slammed the top of the laptop shut and stalked off with it under her arm.

"Annabeth, wait!" I called, running after her.

"Go away Percy," she snapped.

"Can't we just talk?" I pleaded. "Please?"

"No!" Annabeth shouted and turned on me. Her grey eyes flashed but it looked like she was starting to cry again. "I don't want to talk, Percy. You've made your choice, let me make mine."

"Why can't we still be friends?"

"Because friends don't abandon each other like that!" Annabeth sniffed twice, but before she could get away, I grabbed her arm.

"Let go of me," she snarled, struggling. But I held her in place.

"Look, Annabeth, the gods offered me immortality. That's the all-time best gift you could ask for! Are you saying you would have refused it in my situation?"

Annabeth stopped struggling and wiped the tears off her cheeks. "Of course I'd have refused it," she snapped.

"Really? If the gods offered you a chance to help run the world as a god, forever, you'd have said no? You would have had a chance to leave your mark on so many diffferent places and so many lives. But you would have walked away?"

I waited for her reaction. Years ago I had found out that Annabeth's fatal flaw was hubris. _"Do you ever feel that way?"_ she had asked me. _"Like you could do a better job if you ran the world?"_ Technically I was twisting this to my advantage, but I guess all's fair in love and war. Not that I was in love with Annabeth, of course.

"I'd have… walked away," she replied but with less certainty than before.

"See?" I let go of her arm and backed off. "I didn't mean to hurt you, Annabeth. And I especially don't want to lose you as a friend."

Annabeth dried some more tears off her face, but didn't meet my gaze. She still looked really upset, but more confused than anything. I was just thankful that up to now I hadn't gotten a punch in the face.

"I can't forgive you yet, Percy," she said finally in a hard voice. "I probably will eventually, but right now I feel–"

She stopped. The air in front of us had just started glowing. A figure was emerging. In a second I realized who it was. Ares was wearing a dangerous-looking leather jacket, shades, and had a belt full of daggers.

"What are you doing here?" I asked warily.

"Looking for you, punk," Ares replied.

"Me? Why?"

"Well it's pretty simple really. I was bored and wanted someone to beat the pulp out of, so I decided to go find my least favourite hero."

"Oh, so you want to fight?"

Ares flexed his biceps, which rippled under the tight leather. I fought the urge to run and hide. "God of war at your service. It's what I do, kid."

"Okay, fine. When and where? I'll meet you there. Right now, I've got some… personal things to sort out." I glanced at Annabeth. She was just staring emotionlessly at Ares.

"I don't think so, punk. I'm the more powerful guy here. I say what we do," Ares grinned wickedly. "I've waited long enough anyhow to beat you up. I would have found you sooner, but I didn't want to interrupt your _heartfelt reunion_ with your girlfriend."

Annabeth blushed, though it was hard to tell since her face was already red. She must have thought Ares was talking about her. But a second later she realized that he wasn't, and her eyes narrowed.

"Who–" she started to say, but Ares cut her off.

"So it's settled then. Jackson, you're coming with me."

I looked pleadingly at Annabeth, hoping she would understand.

"We'll talk later… okay?"

Annabeth crossed her arms.

"Yeah, whatever. I don't care."

I thought I'd better take that as a yes.

"Okay, then. See you soon."

Annabeth stalked off. Ares flexed his muscles again. I sighed. I had tried my best to make it up to my former best friend, and what did I get? A god of war wanting me to fight him, and probably still no friendly feelings from Annabeth.

"Thanks a lot," I grumbled.

Ares chose to ignore that. "Are you ready to fight, little god? Because I'm not going to go easy on you this time."

I didn't like being called 'little god'. And I was pretty sure the last time I beat him, he was fighting to kill.

"Oh, so you were going easy last time?"

Ares lowered his shades, and I got the full blast of his eyes. I saw flashes of epic battles, and more blood and guts than in all the horror movies I had seen put together. I shuddered and surpressed the urge to throw up (though I wasn't even sure _if_ gods could throw up).

"Okay, okay. Whatever. Can we just fight and get this over with?"

"Oh, we're not fighting here," Ares was wearing a grin that I didn't particularly enjoy. "I've got a much better place in mind."

**Reviews would be great! Oh and just to let you know... there's gonna be a big "twist and turn" (to use the words of my English teacher) in the next chapter, so I suggest you stick around ;)**


	6. Chapter 6

**So this is a loooong chapter!  
It was also my first attempt at a fight scene so I skipped over a lot of the actual fighting description... I hope it's still good though!**

"The desert?" I asked incredulously. "You expect me to fight you in the desert?"

"I'm not all brawn, you know," Ares replied. He brushed some of the golden sand off his jacket. "I do have _some_ smarts hidden inside."

I had to admit it was a pretty good plan. I could already feel some of my strength leaving me since the water was so far away. Of course, since I was a god, I didn't lose _all_ my strength, but I definitely wasn't in my prime.

"So, how are we going to do this?" I asked impatiently. I pulled Riptide out of my pocket and started to uncap it.

"Oh no," Ares said. "You're not going to need your sword. No weapons this time, punk. It's just you and me; man to man."

"Okay," I replied slowly and put my sword back. "We're like... boxing? Or wrestling?"

"Call it what you may," Ares shrugged. "Just no weapons allowed. First, though, you're going to have to make a choice: traditional or modern?"

I had no idea what either of those meant, but I did remember a small fact from history class ages ago: wrestlers in ancient Greece had fought naked. I didn't really want to take that risk.

"Modern," I said, fingers crossed.

"Modern it is then." Ares clapped his hands twice. Almost immediately the ground began to tremble. Then an enormous stadium erupted around us.

Picture the biggest arena you could ever imagine. This was bigger. I tried to count how many levels of seating there was, but it just seemed to keep going on and on. The guys at the top must have a heck of a time seeing what's going on at the bottom. Oh, and the weird thing was, it was already full of people. Okay, so maybe they weren't all _people_. Most of the spectators were some kind of monster or creature. I picked out a bunch of snickering harpies, a couple dryads, and a group of giggling nymphs that looked like they came from a cactus or something.

There were some people that looked normal, but I couldn't tell if they were mortal, demigod, or whatever: like the scrawny guy munching on Doritos, or the bored-looking lady with the rainbow headband.

I had just finished checking the place out when all the house lights went off. The crowd went silent. Spotlights started swirling and dancing around the stadium.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Creatures of all ages!" A spotlight came to rest on the figure of a middle-aged man standing in a podium box in the first row. He could only be a son of Ares, and he was shouting enthusiastically into a microphone.

"We welcome you to the scorching deserts of Arizona to witness yet another of the breathtakingly intense battles conducted here in the STADIUM OF SPARTA. So sit back, grab a cold drink and get ready to meet our challengers!"

The crowd hooted. "ARES! ARES!"

"Now don't get ahead of yourselves," announcer-dude chided. "First we have our rookie! Hero turned god and… ahem… saver of Olympus, we have the new, the improved… PERCY JACKSON!"

A spotlight beamed onto me. There was a bit of polite clapping. I heard someone way up high yell "Woo! Go Percy!" followed by an "Ow!" It wasn't exactly a confidence booster.

The announcer cleared his throat.

"Next up, we have our infamous pulverizer of all who challenges him! It's the amazing, the awesome, the aggressive, the unbeatable… ARES!"

The crowd went wild. Everyone was clapping, yelling, cheering or all of the above. The spotlight landed on Ares. He was bowing, waving, and drinking it all in. I made up my mind to beat him if only to deflate his enormous head.

"DO YOU WANNA FIGHT?" announcer-dude roared.

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

"Then lets get ready to RUMBLE!"

The spotlights disappeared and the centre of the stadium was illuminated. Ares and I stood a couple yards apart. I looked down and realized I was wearing a pair of shorts and a muscle shirt. Ares was wearing the same thing, but _his_ probably didn't smell like it hadn't been washed in the last century. As I watched, a pair of boxing gloves appeared on both our hands.

"It's been," Ares cracked his knuckles and winked. "Nice knowing you, kid."

"Bring it on, Ares."

We started to slowly circle each other. I had gotten in fistfights through elementary school, so I had a little experience, but I figured the God of War was no ten-year-old bully. Suddenly, Ares charged. His arm swung out to meet me. I ducked and dodged the arm, but wasn't expecting another fist to hit me in the gut.

I reeled backwards, blinking and trying to figure out what had just happened. Then it occurred to me. I had gotten so used to fighting with a sword I had forgotten one important detail. Ares had _two_ fists. So if I dodged one, I had to keep a lookout for the other. I shook my arms out, and advanced towards my opponent.

Ares swung another punch but this time I was ready, I blocked it with one hand and shot the other towards his head. Ares ducked and I got a fist in the face. Blinking, I tried again.

I would like to say that I dominated that fight. I'd like to say that that I left Ares no time to gather his wits while I pummeled the Ichor out of him. But that, unfortunately, would be a lie.

The truth was, no matter how hard I tried, Ares was always better. His plan to fight me in the desert, where I would be most vulnerable, was definitely working. My big moment came when I ducked a punch and kicked Ares' legs out form under him. That got quite a big cheer form the crowd. Besides that, though, the only other remarkable thing that happened was that I realized that gods did actually feel pain. It wasn't so much as pain, as it was an uncomfortable, itchy feeling. Pain was described as a shooting and piercing. If I could make a comparison, though, this was much worse, and I was sure feeling a lot of it.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, it was half time.

I retreated to my side of the arena where a cluster of cactus-nymphs and a rickety old chair were waiting. I sat down and the nymphs began to dab at my forehead with dry towels. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on finding some way I could beat Ares, a.k.a. the pro boxer. I drew up blank. Opening my eyes didn't make me feel any better. Over on Ares' side, nymphs were mopping his face with soaking wet cloths as he chugged a big bottle of nectar.

"Hey, how come I don't get any of that?" I complained.

"Typical Ares," a voice said form behind me. "He never fights fair. You should know that by now."

I whirled around. Leaning up against the stadium wall was the lady with long wavy hair and the multi-coloured headband that I had noticed before. But the closer I looked, the more different she seemed. Her dress was pure white and shimmered in the spotlights. And one second her eyes were blue, and the next they were green.

"You're Iris," I said. "Goddess of rainbows."

"Pleased to finally meet you, Percy Jackson," she replied.

"Yeah, you weren't really around when we battled Kronos were you?"

Iris glared at me. "I was busy with my own affairs," she said. "And if the Olympians are so much better than the rest of us they should be able to hold their own thrones."

I detected a little bit of jealousy there, but Iris spent a lot of her time delivering the gods' messages. She couldn't hate them _that_ much. Then I got an idea.

"Hey, could you send a message for me?" I asked. "Since you're here."

Iris rolled her eyes. "Of course," she said scathingly. "It's always _Iris, can you deliver this message?_ Not _Hey Iris, how've you been? I've missed you! _noooooo. I'm the messenger and that's all everyone cares about. Urgh."

"Oh, you don't have to then," I said hurriedly. "It's okay."

"No, no. I'll do it," Iris waved a hand.

"Um, thanks. Can you send it to Calypso on Ogygia? Tell her that I'm okay and I'll visit her soon."

Iris stared at me but didn't say anything. "Done," she said and snapped her fingers.

"Thanks."

Ares was getting up and started stretching and cracking various parts of his body. I figured half-time wasn't lasting too much longer.

"Wait," Iris said as I started to get up. "I also have a message for you."

"A message? For me?"

"Yes, well that's what I said, didn't I?" Iris looked annoyed. She reached into the satchel that was slung over one shoulder and pulled out an envelope with PERCY JACKSON written in bold letters. I took it and pulled out a small piece of paper.

_Seaweed Brain,_

_Get your butt over to Camp Half-Blood NOW._

_We have a problem._

_Annabeth_

_PS. This does not mean I've forgiven you._

I read it twice and flipped it over to the back, but that was all there was. Great, what was going on now? And why was it 'we' have a problem? I wasn't sure what I had to do with it, but it couldn't be too good if Annabeth was writing me a letter.

"When did you get this?" I demanded.

Iris shrugged.

"Oh, I think an hour or so ago. They just appear in my bag. I don't really keep track of what's coming in when."

"And you didn't give it to me as soon as you got it?!"

"Well I wasn't going to interrupt the match!" Iris said defensively. "Ares hadn't fought anyone this good in ages!"

"So? There could be a major disaster at Camp Half-Blood and I've wasted an hour!"

"You should be lucky I delivered the message at all! And besides, you can't leave until the match is over. Ares won't let you."

She waited for that to sink in. The sucky thing was, Iris was totally right. There was no way I was going to be able to leave until the match was over. And I didn't even want to think about what Ares might do to me, not to mention a mob of angry spectators.

"Great. _Now_ what am I going to do?"

"I hate to say it, young god, but the fastest way for you to get out of here is to let Ares win."

"No way!" I spluttered. "That is definitely not going to happen!"

Iris raised an eyebrow. I sighted, hating that she was right... yet again.

"Fine," I muttered. "I'll do it."

"Well I'll wait and see what you decide. I only bring the letters after all. You are definitely ruining an awesome match, though," she added under her breath and went back to her seat in the stands.

-----

I met Ares in the centre of the arena. His fiery eyes gleamed and he looked like he was in for another round of Percy-bashing. As for me, I was feeling dryer and more tired than ever before. I probably wouldn't even have to try to lose.

The announcer-dude cleared his throat as he stepped up to the microphone once more.

"Three… two… one… FIGHT!"

Ares was on me in a heartbeat. He threw punches and kicks with such force that I immediately started hurting in that I'm-in-pain-but-not-really god way. I went into defensive mode: ducking, dodging and blocking. I was gradually weakening while Ares was still in prime condition.

I don't know how long we fought for. I tried not to think about how much time was passing at Camp Half-Blood before I could get there. All I knew was that the fight would be over very soon, and I wasn't going to be on the victory side. Whatever, I'd let Ares have his fun. Apparently I would have more important things to deal with.

Ares was closing in on me. I hadn't noticed, but I had been gradually moving backwards the whole time. Now my back was on the wall of the stadium and I no longer had anywhere to run. I closed my eyes, waiting for the final punch that would knock me unconscious or whatever happened to defeated gods. He was coming. I braced myself...

_Slurp slurp_

My eyes snapped open. I flipped my head around and came face-to-face with a sheepish looking satyr, sipping lemonade. As I watched him, he started anxiously nibbling on the can. That's when I got an idea.

Ares was still advancing, playing out the moment in slow motion; savoring his assumed victory. I waited until he was only a couple feet away... and unleashed my power.

Unfortunately, there was something that Ares had overlooked.

He just stood there, stunned, as the liquid from millions of water bottles and soda cans rose in a graceful arc from the hands of their bewildered owners. I let it sit over Ares head, just for a moment. Then I let it fall.

The splash was enormous. I felt the water wash over me and immediately felt 200% better. Man, it was nice to be strong again. Ares was splayed flat on his back by the force of the impact. He was cursing, and spitting out the remains of other people's 7up and coffee.

"You... damned kid... never... stupid..." Ares choked. He started to sit up, but it was too late. Now was payback time.

I brought back my arm, and delivered such a punch that Ares was thrown across the stadium. And I was happy to see that he did not get up.

"Erm... well..." the announcer coughed after at least five minutes of stunned silence. "I guess... we have, um, a winner..."

The audience erupted in applause. In fact, I got a standing ovation. Well, from most people. Announcer-dude was sitting grumpily in his seat and gave me a dirty look, but I would have felt the same way if _my_ dad had been beaten in a fight. I looked over to Iris. She smiled and I got a thumbs-up.

Waving and grinning, I ran towards the stadium's exit. As soon as I got outside, I realized how long Ares and I had been fighting. The sun had set a while ago so I was guessing it was between ten and eleven o'clock. I crossed my fingers and, hoping for the best, I returned to Camp Half-Blood.

-----

I ended up, yet again, on the beach. From here camp didn't _look_ any worse for wear, but that wasn't necessarily a good sign. I hurried to the Big House. The campfire had probably just finished (_if_ there had been a campfire, that is) so I was almost 100% positive that Chiron was still up.

My suspicions turned out to be right. Chiron was standing on the porch of the Big House, pulling at his beard like he was in deep thought. When he caught sight of me, he smiled. But it was a reassuring smile, not a we-don't-have-a-problem smile.

"I'm glad you came, Percy," he said, as soon as I stepped onto the porch. "We have a bit of a situation and I was hoping you might be of some help."

"Yeah, Iris gave me the letter from Annabeth. What's happening?"

"Oh nothing's happening," Chiron said evasively. "It's more of what _happened_ that's the problem."

"That doesn't make any sense."

Chiron sighed.

"Percy... it's about your sister."

**(In the words of my dear friend Gemma22) "GASP!"**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey! Just for anyone who was wondering... Percy and Calypso did NOT do anything serious! I did think of it at one point... but I just couldn't picture Percy going that far. Hope you like this chapter! (Even though it's rather short)**

I blinked. I thought maybe I had misheard Chiron, or that the war with Kronos and old age had finally gotten to him and he had confused me with some other Percy Jackson that had a sister. But Chiron was looking perfectly sane to me, and one of the perks of being a god is super hearing, so it left me just plain confused.

"I don't have a sister," I said. Chiron gave me a look. "Um, do I?"

"Actually–and rather unfortunately–you do." Chiron reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a school photo, which he gave to me.

"Her name is Tatiana Coulter, but most people call her Minnie. She is eight years old and lives in Cocoa Beach, Florida where her mother owns a surf shop. Her favourite colour is purple; her favourite sport is soccer; her favourite food is ice cream; and her secret ambition is to either save the Florida beaches from pollution and developpement or to become a bathing suit model."

My brain tried to process all this information as Chiron handed me the photo. I stared at the small grinning face. The family resemblance was there, that's for sure. The girl—Tatiana, or Minnie—had the same dark hair as me (except hers was longer and more wavy), the same green eyes, and even the same mouth, though it was hard to tell since Minnie's two front teeth were missing. She looked sort of spunky and upbeat. I figured it wouldn't be so bad having _her_ as a sister. But that didn't mean I was okay with it.

"But how come no one's known about her until now?" I asked Chiron. "How did it happen? Where is she?"

"It's a bit of an interesting story. As for where she is: Minnie is here at Camp Half-Blood."

I blinked. "Like, right now?"

"Yes. She only arrived a couple hours ago and we sent her straight to bed in Poseidon's cabin. She was just exhausted."

A billion more questions rose within me. I had to control myself so that they didn't all come pouring out in a jumbled mess.

"How come she's been determined already, though? Who—"

Chiron put up a hand. "It'll be easier if I just explain," he said. I nodded.

"As we have learned, Minnie is a much more aware demigod than almost all of the others here at camp. Her mother never revealed the identity of her father, but Minnie had an interest in so called 'Greek Mythology' and apparantly figured out a lot on her own. She says her abilities appeared only a few months ago (which is extremely early for a half-blood), right around the time that monsters began to appear in the area. Of course, most were in Kronos' control, but there were still a few stragglers that had nothing better to do than hunt a young demigod. Obviously Minnie was very good at keeping most of them at bay."

I listened; this was pretty hard to believe. But on the other hand, Annabeth had been around Minnie's age when she had first arrived at Camp Half-Blood. Minnie must be a fighter. Chiron continued:

"Poseidon was keeping her well hidden until a few weeks ago when Typhon was all over the news. Minnie immediately realized Typhon for what he truly was. She became posessed by the thought that perhaps _she _could be of help, and—"

"Wait. Hold on a minute," I interrupted. "She didn't come here because she thought she could help us, did she?"

"You have to understand, Percy, that she didn't know how serious this all was. She simply saw that there was an enormous threat to Olympus and wanted to help. Minnie is a very... outgoing, sure of herself type of girl. She was certain that she would be able to help."

"But she was too late."

"Well, yes. Minnie managed to swim up the coast unnoticed until she reached New York. Unfortunately for her, she arrived the day after you turned sixteen."

"Well how come I didn't know until now?"

"Well to tell you the truth, none of us knew until now. Minnie stayed on the outskirts of the city for a few days, but was attacked by a group of rallying empousai. She barely escaped with her life. As soon as we realized she was a demigod, we sent a satyr to take her back to camp."

"That still doesn't explain how she was determined so quickly."

"Well frankly it wasn't too hard to guess, hearing her story. And Poseidon must have known he couldn't hide forever."

Something stirred in my memory. I remembered back to the conversation I had overheard between Amphitrite and my father. What had Amphitrite said? Something about staying 'lord of her heart' and having to deal with someone other than me. It must have been Minnie she was talking about, it _had_ to be! I mean, I wasn't too happy about the whole situation, but at least it made some more sense now.

"… And then, of course, that led to another bit of trouble."

"What?"

"Well as you can imagine, some people aren't too happy with this new development."

Thunder rumbled across the sky in agreement.

"Zeus," I said, with a sinking feeling in my stomach.

"Naturally. Both Hades and Poseidon have now broken their oath twice, but as far as we know, Zeus has only slipped once. And it doesn't help his stress level that all this happened only days after the end of a major war—after he already granted immortality to one of Poseidon's children."

I grimaced. Chiron smiled sympathetically.

"Don't be worried, though. Whatever Zeus does, it's Poseidon's fault, not yours. Things like these will pass soon enough. Well, as long as Minnie stays at camp, is properly trained, and doesn't get involved in anything fishy, that is."

"Easier said than done," I muttered.

Chiron chuckled. "Well I guess that's true," he said. "I would get you to meet her, but she's asleep at the moment. Actually I'd like to be getting to bed myself. You don't mind hanging around 'til morning, do you Percy?"

I shook my head. "No problem. I want to lay low for a little while anyhow. I just creamed Ares in a fight. He may come hunting me down."

Chiron shook his head in amazement. "Well that certainly is a feat. Now if you'll excuse me… I'll see you in the morning, Percy."

**:)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Alright so here's the next chapter! Oh, and Saturday I'm leaving to go on vacation so there won't be an update for a couple more weeks... on the brighter side, I will hopefully have a few more chapters written and will just need to put them on the computer.  
BIG enormous hugs to everyone who reviews this story and especially to StarofCalamity who is my new beta reader :)**

It was a little difficult being a god and not being able to sleep, but it also felt good to have some downtime just to relax. I hadn't been getting too much of that lately. It seemed like only an hour later that the sun was rising. I waited until I heard campers moving around before I made my way to the Big House. People were pointing and staring at me left and right, but I was beyond caring now. I tried to avoid my former friends, though, like Clarisse and the Stoll brothers and, of course, Annabeth. I felt bad counting her as one of my _former_ friends, but she had clearly stated how she was not forgiving me, so...

"Congratulations! It's a girl," snickered an Ares camper as I passed by. I ignored him. But it wasn't comforting to know that just about everyone had heard about Minnie. Gossip spread faster through Camp Half-Blood than a hellhound could shadow travel.

Chiron was waiting on the veranda of the Big House like last night. But beside him, was a little girl, twirling a piece of grass between her fingers; a girl that could only be Minnie, my sister. She was already wearing a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and a ragged pair of jeans that looked like they had seen better days. Her curly hair was pulled back in a ponytail and embellished by a single dandelion. Her feet were bare.

"There you are, Percy!" Chiron said as I stepped onto the veranda. "I'd like you to meet, Minnie Coulter. Minnie, Percy. Percy, Minnie."

"Hi," I said awkwardly. I wasn't quite sure how to greet a sister I never knew. Should I hug her?

Minnie stood up and looked me up and down approvingly, like a bug under a microscope. Now I understood why everyone called her Minnie. I didn't know how tall a normal eight-year-old was, but I was guessing that she was about four inches too short.

"Hello Percy," she said once she seemed to decide that I was acceptable. Her missing teeth gave her a bit of a lisp.

"Well I have some things to take care of, so I'll let you two get acquainted," Chiron said shielding his eyes from the sun as he looked over camp. "Just stay out of trouble." Yeah, like that was possible for a demigod.

"Bye Chiron!" Minnie called as he galloped off. "He's really nice," she added to me once he had gone.

"Yeah, um, I know."

I was about to say something else, but at that moment Annabeth showed up, carrying a stack of toast.

"I've got some more – " she started, but stopped in her tracks as soon as soon as she saw me.

"Hi Annabeth!" Minnie squealed, grinning.

"Um... hi," she said distractedly, setting the toast down on the table, and sitting down as far away from me as possible while purposefully avoiding making eye contact. She pulled Daedalus' laptop from her book bag and started looking intently at something on the screen.

Minnie stared at her, confused, for a moment then turned to me. "What's with her?" she asked quietly.

I shifted. "We used to be friends. Best friends... then I got offered immortality – after the battle – and I don't think Annabeth was – is – too happy about it."

Minnie's mouth popped open in a wide 'O'.

"You're... a _god_?" she squeaked, forgetting to whisper.

"Yeah – wait... nobody told you?"

Minnie crossed her arms.

"I've only been here for a couple hours, Percy. I don't know everything yet."

"Okay, okay," I said, putting up my hands because Minnie looked like she was ready to hit me with a piece of toast if I pointed out anything else she didn't know. She glowered for a second, and then turned to adjust the doll sitting beside her on her chair.

"What's that, a Barbie?" I asked Minnie. The doll was incredibly life-like and had long wavy blonde hair (which Minnie had also embellished with a dandelion) and eyes that were a mix of grey and... purple? Who the heck had purple eyes? Anyhow, she was also wearing a bikini bathing suit and a skirt that looked like it was made out of hay. It was a very pretty doll and for a second I thought it reminded me of Annabeth, who, by the way, had been ignoring the both of us.

"Boys," Minnie muttered, but it came out more like _Boyth_. "It's not just any Barbie; it's beachbabebailey."

"Um... a what?"

"Oh, come _on _Percy" Annabeth said, looking up suddenly and raising an eyebrow. "Even _I've_ heard of Beach Babe Bailey."

"But... but – I'm a guy!" I said defensively. "How am I supposed to know these things? They're just stupid dolls."

I could tell at once that I'd said the wrong thing. Minnie's eyes flashed with anger. It didn't really matter that she barely reached my chest because paired with the look she gave me, my sister might as well have been six feet tall. With her thumb she pressed the starfish that stood in place of Beach Babe Bailey's bellybutton (try saying _that_ three times fast) and with a singsong-y _'FUN IN THE SUN!'_ a knife blade slid out of the top of the doll's head. I stared.

Annabeth jumped up and grabbed Minnie by the shoulders.

"Calm down," she said. "Percy didn't mean that, did you, Percy?" She glared at me.

"... No, of course not," I said, still staring at the knife/doll.

The doll let out an obnoxious _'YOU'RE A SUPERSTAR!'_and the knife retreated, leaving a plain old, bikini-clad Barbie. Minnie sat back down, still frowning. Annabeth checked her watch and let out a groan.

"_Vlacas, _that reminds me. Minnie, you're supposed to be having sword fighting lessons right now in the arena. Come on, we'd better get going." She glared at me like it was somehow _my_ fault that Minnie was late.

Minnie looked immediately cheerier and was almost skipping as she followed Annabeth, Beach Babe Bailey in hand.

"See you later alligator!" she called to me.

"See ya, Minnie..." I said back. "Bye... Wise... Girl," I added, trailing off.

Annabeth didn't even look back.

---

I didn't really have anything better to do, so I decided to go watch Minnie's sword fighting class. _You need to visit Calypso, _a voice in my head said but I dismissed it. Minnie was much more important than Calypso. I think. Well, at this moment at least. So as soon as Annabeth and Minnie were out of sight I made my way to the arena. I didn't really want to make a scene, so I hid behind one of the pillars and watched the class. Clarisse was the teacher and she called the younger kids up one-by-one and showed them how to wield their weapon of choice. For a girl that hadn't had any training but had survived an empousai attack, Minnie was pretty good. She used her knife with as much skill as Annabeth.

If anyone noticed me lurking behind the pillar, no one said anything. The class finished an hour and a half later and the campers drifted out of the arena in small groups. Minnie hung back a little, and at first I thought it was because she had noticed me, but stared as she stopped to talk to _Clarisse_, of all people!

I crept closer and watched, wondering what the heck they could be talking about. It looked like they were admiring... Minnie's Beach Babe Bailey?

"Whoa," Clarisse muttered, adjusting the doll's bikini and grass skirt. "It's a limited time edition and everything. I'm guessing this isn't just plastic."

"Nope," Minnie bragged. "Hand-woven sea grasses."

"Lucky."

I had to basically punch myself in the mouth to stop from laughing. Who knew that Clarisse had a secret passion for Barbie dolls? I managed to stop most of the laugh, but let out some kind of garbled squeak. In a second, a dagger was at my throat.

"If you breathe a word to anyone, Jackson, I swear I'll... I'll..." Clarisse spluttered.

"Kill me?" I joked.

"I won't, but maybe my dad will."

"Ooh, I'm scared now."

"You'd better be," Clarisse taunted, regaining confidence. "He wasn't too happy after you beat him yesterday. He'll be after you soon enough, just wait." She punched me in the arm a little harder than necessary and swaggered away, leaving me alone with Minnie.

"Wow, you're really skilled, aren't you?" Minnie said sarcastically after a beat of silence.

"What?"

"Well you've scared away all of my friends so far."

"Oh, right," I said sheepishly. "Sorry about that."

"No, it's okay," Minnie shrugged as we started walking. "I like spending time with you too! How long are you staying?"

I shrugged in turn. I wasn't even sure of that myself. On one hand, I was a god now. There must be more important things I had to do then hang around at my old camp. But on the other hand, Camp Half-Blood had been my second home, and I guessed there was a part of me that just wasn't ready to give it up.

"I dunno; maybe a couple more hours."

Minnie nodded understandingly. "Godly stuff."

_More like girl stuff, _I wanted to say, thinking of Calypso, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to admit that to Minnie, especially with what happened with Annabeth. I was positive Annabeth must have remembered the snide comment Ares had made about my girlfriend, and I knew that even bringing up the topic again would be like suicide.

"Yeah, godly stuff," I agreed. "But what about you? You're going to stay here right?"

"I hope so," said Minnie, kicking a rock absentmindedly. "I _want _to stay here. Chiron said something about a mission – no, a quest – thingy happening tonight, so I don't know about that."

"A quest?" I said excitedly, thinking of the last time Grover, Annabeth, Tyson and I had all been on a quest. It was right before the Battle of the Labyrinth, and we had been looking for Daedalus. We had found him, and he had given Annabeth his laptop...

And now she was supreme architect of Olympus, Grover was Lord of the Wild, and Tyson was a Cyclops general. Oh, right, and I was a god. And gods didn't go on quests. It really sucked when you think about it that way. I mean, what does a god really do? Okay, apart from the running the world thing, which I --- as a minor god --- probably wouldn't do anyway. Was I _really_ ready to give up quests and adventures? It didn't seem like it.

"Yeah, a quest!" Minnie said, missing the fact that I was no longer as excited. "He said something about the campfire tonight, so I guess we'll find out then!"

**Reviews make me feel like this :D**


	9. Chapter 9

**I'm baaaaccckk! Finally. I had a great trip, though, and even saw Mount Olympus! Okay, not the "real" one, the one in Washington state USA, but it was close enough. Anyhow, here is the much anticipated chapter 9! Enjoy...**

It was evening, and everyone was enjoying the enormous campfire at Camp Half-Blood. We sang songs, roasted just about anything we could fit onto a stick, and – if you were in the Hephaestus cabin – built mini-machines that catapulted flaming marshmallows. It was pretty typical, really.

I sat mainly by myself. It took about ten seconds for everyone to get over the fact that I was back at camp, and now they were all pulling an Annabeth and ignoring me. She was on my left, with Minnie and a couple more campers – mostly from Athena – but made sure there was a good six feet of space between us. I didn't try my luck and edge closer. Minnie was the only one of them that caught my eye every once and a while with a smile. So I just roasted a couple marshmallows and enjoyed the smell of charred food, the idea of a quest nagging at the back of my mind.

Finally Chiron stepped forward and motioned for everyone to settle down.

"Ahem!" he cleared his throat.

"So as you probably all already know, we have a new camper: Minnie Coulter, daughter of Poseidon." Minnie figeted in her seat when everyone stared at her. I knew the feeling.

"But there have also been a lot of campers responsible for spreading rumours about her," Chiron continued, looking pointedly at Travis and Connor Stoll. "The most crazy involving a giant octopus and a magic carpet." A couple campers giggled. Connor raised his hands guiltily.

"I'd like to clear all of this up since some of it is important to you as heroes. Minnie was in New York shortly after the Battle of Olympus, and stumbled upon a group of surviving empousai who were rallying in Central Park. From what her, and the satyr Jasper Sherwood have told us, we think the monsters that escaped us may be joining forces once again. There are not many, but we don't know yet _why_ they are doing such, and myself and Mr. D would like to indeed find out and put a stop to it. That is why we have decided to offer a quest."

"Not a very large quest," Chiron said, as the crowd started muttering, and a few people cheered. "More of a mission, if you'd like to call it that. I know everyone has been through a lot lately, but this is something I don't think we should turn a blind eye to."

I nodded slowly to myself. Judging by the overall mood of the crowd, not everyone was willing to get out and battle some more monsters so soon after everything had finally settled down. I sure hoped that they had chosen someone with enough guts to take it all on. Now if _I_ could still go on quests… but no – this was someone else's turn.

Mr. D stepped forward, looking the same as ever in his ugly Hawaiian shirt and shorts.

"The camper that has been chosen, to lead the quest; to prove himself," there was some muttering from the now sour-looking girls. "Even though everyone who fought recently has already pretty much proven themselves… For reasons of bravery and skill… blah blah blah, it's Cameron Stymeist, son of Athena, hooray everyone."

The Athena cabin burst into applause and cheering. Can Stymeist – a friendly guy maybe a year or two younger than me – was sitting on Annabeth's other side, but momentarily disappeared under all the pats-on-the-back his friends gave him. The nosie level started rising again as all the other campers went back to their conversations, some looking more disappointed then before.

I wasn't – disappointed I mean. If the worst thing happening right now was the gathering of a handful of tired monsters, life was good. Cam was just the sort of guy to deal with them. Trying to be as sly as possible, I edged a little closer to Annabeth to try and get in on some of the action.

"So, Cam," Chiron said, arriving at our group. "Are you accepting the quest?"

"Yes," Cam said immediately. "Of course."

"Wonderful," Chiron clapped his hands together. "Now you're still allowed to bring two friends with you…"

"Patrick."

A couple of the other Athena campers started whispering. Cam seemed pretty sure of his answer, but the son of Hermes who was his best friend didn't exactly have enough courage to tip the scales, if you know what I mean. I may have been imagining it, but Patrick didn't look too thrilled about it either.

"And…" Cam scanned the faces all around him. He finally looked to the girl on his right. "Annabeth."

There was a lot more whispering. Annabeth's lists of quests, after all, was as high as mine, and probably about ten times as long as any average camper. But at least she would be doing something interesting, and would maybe get some more time to simmer down before I tried talking to her again.

"Are you sure?" Chiron asked.

"I'm sure."

"Well then I suggest you three go back to your cabins and start preparing. You'll need to consult the Oracle, of course –"

"Wait."

Minnie had stood up; she wasn't looking too happy. "I want to go too."

"Minnie," Chiron warned. "This is Cam's quest. He's already chosen his two friends. You'll have to wait until it's your turn."

"But that's not _fair_!" Minnie cried. "I was the one who found the monsters. I should be able to go."

"You barely know how to fight," Chiron pointed out. "You've only been at Camp Half-Blood less than twenty-four hours, you're too young, and you barely escaped with your life last time. I don't think you're ready to go on a quest, my dear."

"I'll be with other people; it'll be different."

"Look, she can have my place," Patrick said suddenly. "I'm fine if I never have to fight another monster in my life. Minnie really wants to go, so she can go instead of me."

Chiron pulled at his beard, thinking. "Are you okay with this, Cam?"

"I guess so," Cam shrugged. "As long as everyone's happy, I'm good."

Chiron considered this. He glanced over and we locked eyes for a moment. Then he turned back to Cam.

"Well I guess it's decided then. Cam, Annabeth and Minnie will go on the quest. Now as I was saying…"

"Peter Johnson," a voice said behind me, as I resisted the urge to punch the whispering Athena campers in the face. I turned abruptly to see Mr. D standing there. "Come, I need to talk to you."

"Um, okay," I said as I followed him. Dionysus and I weren't really fans of each other so it would have to be something _really_ important for him to actually come and talk to me.

"What do you want?" I asked as soon as we were far enough away.

"My gods, not even a 'hello' for your favourite camp director?" Dionysus chided. "Well anyhow, Perry Jepson, the Council of the Gods met yesterday, and we've decided to appoint you God of Heroes. Do you accept the title?"

I felt like all functions in my brain has slowed down to turtle speed.

"Yes… yes…" I stammered. "I accept."

"Well I suppose I expected that," he sighed. "I didn't vote for it myself, but Poseidon convinced most of the others that it would be best for the demigods, as well as for you."

The gears in my head started turning again.

"Wait, so the majority of the gods wanted me to become _more_ powerful?" I said sarcastically. "How did my dad manage that?"

Dionysus shrigged. "Good arguments. Ares was absolutely furious, and Zeus wasn't happy wih it at all, but Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Apollo, Hera, Demeter and Hermes all seemed to think it was a good idea. _I_ can't see how, personally, anyone would _want_ to be even more connected to this infernal camp."

Dionysus was stuck at Camp Half-Blood for another fifty years, for coveting some sort of off-limits wood nymph. I, on the other hand, didn't believe I'd _ever_ get sick of camp. And I guess now as the god of heroes, I could stay forever. It just seemed too easy. "But wait, is that it? I'm just a proper god now?"

"Well, yes. Being the god to heroes you are now held to all responsibilities from now on. You oversee demigod's quests, go on their quests if need be – I would recommend it for tomorrow just to learn the ropes, by the way – help them with their quests if they pray to you enough… and so on and so forth. You also get all the godly privileges, including: blasting, smiting, appearance altering, true godly form, foresight, premonitions –"

"But isn't that pointless? Why would I go on a quest, if I knew all along how it would end up?"

"Ah, but that's the fun part, Perry. You obviously can't know how all demigod quests end up. You will probably have vague ideas, or slight feelings, but aside from that, you'll have to go hrough everything the poor little half-blodds experience."

"Fun." I was actually pretty excited, but Mr. D thought I was being sarcastic.

"It most undoubtably will be. For me, that is. For you it will simply be frustrating."

"Gee, thanks."

"Well that's all for now, Peter Johnson. I must be getting back to all the exciting duties that I must do as camp director. You should probably be preparing yourself for tomorrow. I'm sure it will be an interesting day." He turned and left.

I didn't notice that the campfire had ended and all the campers were making their way back to their cabins. I didn't notice Minnie's cheerful "Goodnight Percy!" as she skipped by. I felt energized, like I could jump over a building. I probably could.

"Thanks Dad," I whispered, pretty sure he was listening. "I owe you big time."

I could have sworn I heard a chuckle, but it might have just been the waves on the beach.


	10. Chapter 10

**The quest has begun! Even though it's a rather short one... And just to let you know, the closest I've ever been to Central Park or New York for that matter is on Google Earth so if paths or playgrounds or anything are in a completely wrong place, it's me taking artistic liberties ;) **

I was at the Big House at 6am, ready for the quest. I had spent the night before in Cabin 3, practicing my new godly skills. Let's just say it was a good thing that Minnie was asleep, or else her eyes would have been burned out of her head. Though she may only find a pile of ashes when she goes looking for her favourite pink hairbrush. I had a little too much fun with the blasting.

Not long after that, Chiron joined me on the front porch.

"Dionysus told me the good news. I'm guessing you'll be joining the others on the quest?"

"I think so," I replied. "Mr. D said it would be a good way to get me used to things. What do you think?"

Chiron chuckled.

"I don't think you realize this yet, but you are indeed the upper man here, Percy. I don't have the authority anymore to advise you on anything."

That struck me as way weird.

"Well, think of it as friend-to-friend." And it was true, I always thought of Chiron as being a friend as well as a mentor. Dionysus was definitely a tell-you-what-to-do-and-not-really-care type of guy, but Chiron had always given me the best advice in the past, and actually cared about what happened to me to top it off.

"Then I suggest it would probably be a good idea, especially since – ah – Minnie is going on this one."

Good. "Have they consulted the Oracle yet?"

"No not yet. They should be here at any moment, though. Here's Cam now."

"'Morning Chiron, Percy," Cam was all ready for his quest. We were dressed identically, in Camp Half-Blood t-shirts and jeans, but he carried a backpack over one shoulder. I knew instantly everything that it contained.

"Good morning Cam. Are you ready to hear your prophecy?" Chiron asked.

Cam shivered. "I guess so. The Oracle gives me the creeps."

Chiron nodded understandably. "She does what she can."

"Well then, I'd better go. Wish me luck!"

Good luck, I thought, somehow certain that he would come back as sane as before.

I decided to go say one last (slobbery) goodbye to Mrs. O'Leary, and when I appeared back at the Big House five minutes later, Annabeth and Minnie were already there, listening to the prophecy Cam had received.

"It wasn't very long," Cam was saying. "Probably because this is such a small quest. Just two lines," He read:

_Three Half-Bloods of four seek foe to repress  
Find them they may but return with one less_

"Hardly cheerful," Chiron mused.

"So what does that mean?" Minnie asked, looking scared. "One of us isn't really going to die, right?"

"It didn't say _die_," said Cam, patting her shoulder. "It said they wouldn't return. That could be a good thing too."

"Oh, okay." But I could tell that Minnie wasn't really buying it.

"It's the first line that doesn't make sense, though. It says "_Three Half-Bloods of four_" but there are only three of us. Annabeth?"

"Hmmm… let's see," Annabeth said feigning thought. "Who do we know that isn't a demigod, but would still find a way to get himself on a quest?" She gave me a withering look.

"Surprise?"

Annabeth stamped her foot. "Gods, this isn't fair!"

"Hey, it's not like I can help it," I retorted, and explained my new situation.

It didn't help. "You are _so_ going to regret this."

"Oh yeah?" I grinned and my eyes glowed with blue fire. "You sure about that?"

Cam flinched. Minnie's eyes were as round as beach balls. Annabeth, of course, was trying to stare me down.

"Hey guys," Cam said waving a hand between our faces. "Argus is here with the van; we should get going."

Neither of us moved.

Cam stomped his foot. "As leader of this quest I _order_ you two to cut it out!"

We turned our heads at that, but Cam suddenly went white and he bit his lip nervously.

"Um, I mean I'm s-sorry Percy… my, my lord. I mean–I didn't mean to disrespect your, uh, godliness or anything–"

It took me a second to realize what he was talking about. Even with all the cool powers, I had sort of forgotten that everyone was going to be super-respectful and call me "my lord" and stuff from now on. It felt wrong, and a little awkward.

"Don't worry about it," I said, trying not to laugh at the look on his face. "I wasn't going to blast you or anything. Though," I put on my most stuck-up voice. "If you make any such comment in the future I may have no choice but to smite you into oblivion."

Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"You're forgetting that one of us is going to disappear on this quest regardless. Any idea on who that may be 'O Mighty God of Heroes'?"

"No clue."

"I hope it's you," she muttered so that only the two if us could hear.

"Argus is still waiting with the van–" Cam tried again but stopped when Patrick came sprinting across the lawn towards us. I wasn't sure why, but he was carrying a pair of high tops in one hand.

"Oh thank gods I got here on time," he panted, stopping with his hands on his knees to catch his breath. "I thought. I wouldn't. Make it. Here," he thrust the shoes into Cam's hands. "These are for you."

"But Pat," Cam said awkwardly. "I'm already wearing –"

"No, no, these are new. I got them from my dad. Watch _Maia!_" A tiny pair of wings sprouted from the heels. "If you wear them you can fly."

"Thanks, man! That's awesome!" Cam kicked off his old sneakers and slipped on the winged high tops. He levitated an inch off the ground much to Minnie's amusement.

I wanted to blast them to ashes. I wanted to rip them to shreds. I wanted to punt them to the other side of the world and never have to see them again. I wanted to – well, I guess you get my point.

"Cam…" Annabeth started.

I could tell we were both thinking the same thing, but I gave her a look that shut her up. Patrick was a nice guy. I liked him. I didn't want to offend him by saying that Luke had given me a similar pair of shoes that almost killed Grover. My godly Spidey-senses weren't tingling for the moment, and I guessed that that meant the shoes were safe… for now.

"Anything for my best friend," Patrick smiled. "Just be sure to poke a Lastrygonian in the eye for me."

At that moment I guess Argus got a little impatient waiting because he arrived with all eyes scowling, making motions between us and the van.

"Yes, yes, we're coming," Cam said and ushered the rest of us inside. Yes, I decided to take the van instead of zapping myself there. If I was going on this quest, I figured I should at least act like a normal person if only to try and get on Annabeth's good side. The eye-rolling could definitely get annoying after a while.

If Argus was nervous at having a god in the front seat with him he didn't show it. He just made sure everyone's seat belts were tightened (it's always good to be safe while heading out on a potentially deadly mission, right?), started the engine, and drove away.

***

"Do you remember which way to go?"

The four of us were standing at an entrance of Central Park. Argus had dropped us off only seconds before, and Cam was hoping Minnie remembered something from her last run-in with the monsters to point us down one of the dozens of paths that lay out before us.

"No," she said, looking frustrated with herself. "I don't remember. It all happened too fast. There were some trees…"

That really narrowed it down. Not.

"Well then let's take that one," Cam pointed to a trail on our left that was bordered by dense trees. "Maybe it's just me, but it looks like the place that some monsters would want to hang out."

"Sounds fine to me," Annabeth agreed.

But Cam was wrong. We needed to take a trail on the right – a bright, sunny path that led to the sports fields – if we wanted to get to the monsters' meeting place. I didn't know how I knew it but I did as certainly as I knew that Minnie's backpack was blue with purple flowers. I opened my mouth to tell Cam that he was making a mistake but –

_Why though?_

I shook off the thought in the back of my mind. We needed to get rid of the empousai, giants and all the demons that were in the park. To do that, we had to find them before they realized we were around. And that meant taking the right path.

_But what does it matter if they know we're here? Surprise attacks will keep the demigods on their guard. It'll toughen them up, build character, and force them to use their problem-solving skills. Would you really deny the heroes of such an opportunity?_

Now when you put it that way…

"Um, Percy?"

"Hunh?"

"Are you coming?"

"Right. Yeah, I'm coming. Sorry Annabeth."

"You're such a Seaweed Brain sometimes, even when you're a _god_."

I couldn't help grinning as I followed Annabeth down the trail. Maybe I reading her thoughts, or maybe I was just getting my hopes up, but I had a feeling that I had been forgiven… just a little bit.


	11. Chapter 11

**IM BAAAAACK! Miss me? ;) Not that i really went anywhere interesting... just had an extremely hectic fall and winter. Actually it was those new subscribers and reviewers that inspired me to get back to writing, so thanks if that was you. On another note, I'm reeeaaaally excited to see the Lightning Thief movie! 9 days! Hopefully they stay true to the book... I mean, WHY can't they give Alexandra Daddario some blonde hair dye? Her face is perfect and everything, but the brown hair is sorta getting on my nerves. Anyhow, enough randomess, enjoy chapter 11!**

If you didn't know what there was a crowd of demons lurking somewhere in Central Park you would have said it was an average summer morning. There was the smell of freshly cut grass and morning coffee, the squeak of stroller wheels, and the ruffling of newspapers. There were birds singing and squirrels chasing each other up and down trees. Of course, there were still some areas that looked like they'd been trampled (only _we_ knew it wasn't that far from the truth) but even there, teams of volunteers were planting flowers and patching up lawns.

Cam, Annabeth and I strolled together like we were a couple normal kids. Minnie skipped way ahead, obliviously, swinging her Beach Babe Bailey by the tiny plastic arm.

"Ooh, a puppy!" she squealed and veered off track to pet a cute little dog. "What's her name?" she asked the cute jogger girl who held its leash.

"Mitzi," the girl replied in a weirdly monotone voice and smiled as she held out her other hand. "And I'm Lisa. Nice to meet you Minnie."

Minnie hesitated. "Uh, I never told you my name."

Lisa's smile faltered. "Um, really?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"I-" Lisa was struggling. Then the confused look was replaced by a smile, but this time it wasn't one I particularly liked. It occurred to me that the way she spoke was like the way I had at my fourth grade school where they thought that a successful form of punishment was forcing the delinquents to participate in the school play. Lisa was reciting lines. I looked to Annabeth and could tell that she was thinking the same thing. Her pace quickened.

"I know all about you Minnie Coulter," Lisa hissed, yes, hissed. Because in half a second nice, pretty Lisa was gone and nasty I-want-to-bite-your-head-off _empousai_ Lisa was leering over my little sister.

Now I was cursing myself (and judging by the little voices in my head Annabeth was cursing me too) for letting Minnie wander so far ahead. I hoped Cam's winged shoes could carry him fast enough to stop my sister from being lunchmeat. _Even better_, my conscience added, _Minnie will leap at this chance to prove herself and save her own life._

"N-no!" Minnie squeaked. She backed away and brandished her Beach Babe Bailey. "You'd better b-back off!"

"Awwh," Lisa/_empousai_ sneered."Isn't that just adorable. The witty bitty girlie is gonna fight me with her teensy weensy baby doll. What's it gonna do, pout at me?"

But that witty bitty girl had more guts than had been anticipated. There was a squeal of _'FUN IN THE SUN!' _and the monster dissolved into dust. Minnie stood with her knife in hand, staring at the spot where the _empousai_ had been when Annabeth, Cam and I reached her.

"W-o-w," Minnie's cheeks were flushed. "I forgot how good that felt!"

I laughed. Nothing like a good spat with a monster to blow off some steam.

"But what's not good is that they know we're here," Cam said. "We've lost the element of surprise."

"You're all great fighters, though," I said. "I'm sure this whole mission will be a breeze."

Annabeth gave me a weird look (which was understandable since I sounded like an overly-proud father) but decided it was no biggie and shrugged. "Yeah, we've definitely faced worse."

We set off down the trail again. Instead of skipping ahead, Minnie gripped my hand and kept her knife at the ready. The next few joggers were seriously weirded out by the looks we gave them but it turned out that most of them were _empousai_ as well. They didn't last long. With the help of a few friendly, but tired dryads we finally headed in the right direction. We were nearing the Diana Ross Playground when I stopped the others.

"Sssh! We're close."

"Where?" Annabeth whispered.

I pointed to where the playground was up ahead. If you looked through the Mist you could see the outlines of really big stuff behind the trees. "There they are."

Picture the wildest party you've ever been at. Now times it by ten and replace the people with bloodthirsty monsters. You'll probably have a nice image of the crowd of monsters. For a demigod it was like an All-You-Can-Kill Buffet of hellhounds, _empousai_, harpies and giants. And above this mess was a lone _dracaena _that was trying to control the mad house.

"My brethren!" she was screaming, "The time is ripe to unite! We must finish the job our noble master began; he will not have been destroyed in vain! While the gods are lazy in their assumed triumph, we shall strike from the shadows! A new age shall begin! _Our_ age!

I wondered how many times the _dracaena_ had been hit on the head during the battle, because it had probably been ten times too many. There was no way in a million years that this miserable group of demons could take Olympus. No chance. Zip. Zero. Apparently I wasn't the only one thinking that.

"Um…" grunted the lone Hyperborean "Um, how?"

"We hit them at their weakest point: the half-bloods!"

My stomach twisted into a knot. Enough demigods got killed every year by the monsters, it made me queasy to think what they could do if they actually organized themselves. Of course, they didn't have a guardian with a 24/7 hour shift back then. And if we had anything to do with it, the monsters wouldn't even make it to tomorrow.

"Be ready," I hissed. "Wait for my command. Take them from behind. Minnie, start with the hellhounds. Annabeth – where's Annabeth?"

Cam blinked and looked around. "She was here a second ago!"

I exhaled slowly. Of course, Annabeth wasn't sticking around to hear orders. Now we had to wait until she decided to show herself before we launched an attack. I scanned the crowd until I spotted an invisible Annabeth sneaking up behind the jungle gym. All hail my immortal powers. She was mere feet from the _dracaena_, who was still busting her lungs to shout above the roar.

"We are demons! We are terror! We're unstoppable! We're – "

Dead, I thought as she promptly evaporated into dust. I gave a thumbs up in Annabeth's direction and shouted "Go!" to Cam and Minnie, who charged with swords and daggers held high. My hand was halfway to Riptide when I realized that I wouldn't be joining them in this fight.

It took all my self control to just stand there and watch as my friends leaped into battle, slashing through demons left and right. The only thing that kept me sane was the fact that we were totally dominating. Cam kick started his winged shoes and zoomed upwards, nailing the Hyperborean right between the eyes. A hellhound lunged at Annabeth, but she dropped to the ground and stabbed it in the belly.

I thought we were going to win, and then I realized I had forgotten about the prophecy.

_Three Half-Bloods of four seek foe to repress  
Find them they may but return with one less_

It was pretty easy to understand. For the sake of the demigods I hoped it was me who wouldn't be returning to Camp Half-Blood.

Then I saw it.

It was a shimmering gold beam of light and was heading right towards us. The sheer energy it contained made the hairs on my arm stand up. I followed it with my eyes to see where it was headed. Minnie.

My heart dropped to my stomach as I watched the arc of killer energy descend toward the little girl, who was already battling monsters for her life. At that moment, I didn't care that it wasn't my place to interfere. All I knew was that this wasn't how things were meant to be.

_No way,_ I thought. _Don't you even think about touching my sister._

Before I realized what I was doing, a wall of blue water shot up from the ground, surrounding Minnie like a funnel. Just in time. The golden light collided with it and exploded in a crackle of lightning, vaporizing the last of the demons, and probably causing one of New York's biggest power outages. I sprinted over to where Minnie sat, trembling on the ground.

"You okay?" I asked, helping her up.

"W-w-what was that?" Minnie stuttered as she reached for her knife.

"I don't know," I lied. "But I'm going to get to the bottom of it, that's for sure."

"Well at least that's over, I – " Minnie's face went white as she stopped abruptly.

Apparently we had missed one. A Lastrygonian giant was swiping his meaty hands at Cam, who was floating on his winged shoes above the monster's head. There was just one problem.

"Percy!"

The shoes jerked Cam to the left, and then the right. They swooped down only inches from the giant, and then flew up past the tallest trees.

It was like a sickening case of déjà-vu.

"Gods" Annabeth cursed coming up from behind me. "Not again! Percy, you have to do something!"

"I can't."

"You didn't seem to have a problem with it before."

"That was different," I said. "Whatever that energy was, it wasn't a part of the quest. That's why I could interfere."

"Percy!" Cam cried. He was rising higher.

"Look _I'll_ help!" Annabeth snapped. Her dagger flew through the air and nestled in the giant's chest. The monster had only a second to look surprised before he exploded into dust.

I couldn't do anything but stand helplessly as my friend drifted further and further up into the sky. A last echo of "Percy!" reached my ears, but I couldn't find the little dark speck that was Cam. We stood staring at the clouds for a few moments, refusing to accept that our friend was gone. _Find them they may but return with one less. _The prophecy had come true.

**For anyone who read Pendragon, my "This wasn't how things were meant to be" quote was totally taken from there, haha =) **


	12. Chapter 12

**MOVIE SPOILER ALERT! MOVIE SPOILER ALERT!**

**I'm not gonna say anything specific, I'm just gong to admit that it was definitely not as good as I thought it would be. It seems like they just said "Hey, lets take out everything from the plot line, that would enable us to make a sequel," and then went with what was left! Oh well. I guess you can't get everything x]**

**Oh, and you'll notice that my summary has changed, once again... hopefully that doesn't screw things up (though I don't really see how it could)**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, alerted, favourited etc. and to my awesome beta reader StarofCalamity!**

Patrick locked himself in the games room and wouldn't come out. Everyone tried again and again to convince him that we knew he hadn't tampered with the shoes, and that it wasn't his fault, but he wouldn't budge.

I suggested sending Minnie to go talk to Patrick, since maybe a little girl with big, round eyes would make him listen to reason, but my sister just gave me a _look_ and said "But he's a _boy_!" like "boy" was a synonym for "cockroach". I just rolled my eyes. Girls.

Obviously using force was pointless on a number of levels.

If anything, I should have been the one shutting myself away. Wherever I went, dirty looks from Athena campers followed me. They seemed to think it was my fault that they had lost another camper. Conor and Travis Stoll jokingly congradulated me for taking out some of the Capture-the-Flag competition (which hadn't actually happened since the war) but mostly this was just another day in the life of a demigod.

I told Chiron that I'd be out looking for Cam as soon as I could. I just had a feeling he was still alive.

"I'm sure you did the best you could," Chiron said, patting me on the back. "The campers just wanted to believe that their troubles were finished with the war, or that you could always protect them."

"It's not so easy," I grumbled. "There are so many rules! Like how I could save Minnie but not Cam. It's the worst feeling in the world, standing there and knowing you can't interfere."

"You are bound, unfortunately, by the duties of your role. About your sister though…"

"I'm dealing with it. There's no way I can let this slide."

"Just be careful," Chiron warned. "It is dangerous for godlings to get in too deep before they're ready. Immortals do not act in the same way half-bloods do. You must realize that."

I nodded, suddenly unsure. Besides the cool powers and annoying conscience, I didn't _feel_ any different. Maybe this wasn't the time to be ticking off any more gods…

Then I snapped myself out of it. This was my sister we were talking about. So I marched through the woods to Zeus' fist, and climbed to the very top.

The air was fresh in the woods, and I had a good view of the rest of the camp below. It was hard to believe that I was unofficially in charge of it all. The fates of all the little demigod campers were in my hands now. Like the class practicing their sword techniques in the arena. One slip of a weapon and they could be dead. Life seemed to fragile, and now that I wasn't concerned with my own fate 24/7, I could actually have the change to help the rest of them. That thought brought me back to my present mission, so I looked up to the sky and shouted as loud as I could.

"Zeus! I know you're watching."

"And I was hoping you'd be a little more dimwitted," the god's voice replied as he appeared in a clap of thunder. "I was rather annoyed when you intercepted my lightning bolt. Do you have any idea how much work it takes to get exact, perfect aim?"

"You tried to kill my sister!"

"You really shouldn't show favoritism towards certain demigods. That could get you in trouble."

"I wasn't playing favourites; I was protecting a demigod who you tried to vaporize for _no good reason_!"

Zeus snorted. "No good reason? Bah! Gods aren't like heroes, Jackson. We're not _noble_; we're too busy running the world. Twice my brother broke his oath! I only wanted to make things fair."

Despite the fact that the air around us was literally crackling with angry electricity, Zeus looked a lot less scary from this side of the immortality line. I thought back to all the things that had frightened me about him before. It sort of came down to his size, and the fact that he could blast me to bits at any moment. But now that neither were an issue, my confidence was soaring.

"Oh really? I disagree. If you only wanted to make things fair, you would've gone out and claimed one of your other kids that are floating around the country. Or just had another one. But no, you decided to take it out on Minnie. I think it was for revenge."

"Why would I want revenge?"

Zeus spoke with contempt, but I knew it was just an act.

"Because Poseidon saved the day and not you. Because _I_ was the child of the prophecy. Because you're only daughter has pledged herself to another goddess. You're supposed to be at the top, and you're falling up short."

There was silence.

I fought the urge to say _'Okay! Enough god-bashing for the day. See you around!'_ and get the heck out of there.

Then a wall of sheer energy hit me like a ton of bricks and threw me back into the trees. Branches whipped my face and arms like tiny knives. Except, when the Ichor started flowing I realized it wasn't the branches. Tiny needles of lightning were shredding my skin like rabid birds.

"Okay… OKAY!" I put a wall of water between me and the attack. I couldn't see his face, but when Zeus spoke, his voice was full of acid.

"You may have been right this time, but you have much to learn, Jackson."

He disappeared in a shower of sparks.

***

I didn't feel like being around people after that so I spent the rest of the afternoon incognito. I sent a letter to Grover (asking him to come visit camp), checked up on my dad (they had finished up the games room without me), and took Mrs. O'Leary for a quick walk up to Boston and back (don't ask). After sunset I figured it was safe to be around, so I ended up at the beach. I realized that perhaps my godly intuition needed a bit of fine-tuning.

Annabeth was sitting on the shore. Her bare toes were in the cold water, and her hair was blowing away from her face. She was gazing into the distance but not really seeing what was there, like her mind was a million miles away.

"You're not at the bonfire," I said as I sat down beside her.

Annabeth started at my sudden appearance.

"No… I wanted time alone. To think. What happened to your face?"

"My face?" I touched my cheek. There were little raised scars where the lightning had scratched me.

"It looks like you were attacked."

I debated for a second whether to tell Annabeth the truth.

"It was Zeus. I sort of confronted him and he got… well let's just say he wasn't too happy."

Annabeth snorted. "Seaweed Brain." But she raised her hand to wipe a drop of ichor that still clung to my cheek. She gazed at it sadly.

"Um, you wanna talk?" I asked.

"It's fine. I'm just," she sighed. "Confused."

That took me by surprise. A confused Annabeth was like an ugly Aphrodite, or a friendly Dionysus. Annabeth almost always had some sort of plan.

"Look, I don't like seeing my best friend upset."

"Oh Percy, stop pretending!" Annabeth said with sudden emotion, and wiped my blood into the sand.

"Stop pretending what?"

"That we can still be friends. That nothing will change. That you still care about me."

I paused.

"You're feeling lonely."

"How did you –? Oh never mind." Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Can you read minds now?"

I chose to ignore that. "I thought you'd be happier, though. You're the Supreme Architect of Olympus now! Isn't that your dream?"

I didn't want to check how she would reply. It wasn't like I was trying to get the answer I already knew. It just felt a bit like betrayal, thinking Annabeth wasn't happy with her reward. I needed her to tell me that wasn't it.

"Sure, I've wanted that for as long as I can remember. Gods, I feel so selfish," she buried her head in her hands. "It's just that, when I thought about my dreams coming true, I thought I'd be able to share that with my best friends. Now Grover won't be around anymore, and neither will Thalia, or _you_ for that matter. And it's not like the restoration will take forever. In, what, a year or two, it'll be done and then what? I'll be sent right back here to camp, or out in the world to live the rest of my life. I'll be old, with kids or something, and you'll still be sixteen and… perfect."

I'd never really thought in depth about what happened to demigods after they were too old for camp. A lot of them never made it there, but the others seemed to get along fine in the normal world. It also felt really weird imagining Annabeth getting married. Probably to some stupid guy that wouldn't even deserve her (I pictured a version of Smelly Gabe). Jerk. Then thinking about that reminded me of Calypso. She was nice, and sweet, and smart and beautiful… but she didn't have that same spark that Annabeth had. And maybe I hadn't figured out what those feelings were yet, but I knew that my feelings for Annabeth were stronger than my feelings for Calypso.

I reached over and took Annabeth's hand in mine.

"Look, this is all really new to me," I said sincerely. "I'm as lost as you are. But I promise I won't forget you. I don't care what you say, you're still my best friend and I'm gonna do everything I can not to lose you."

Annabeth bit her lip and nodded. We held each other's gaze for a while and I felt something significant pass between us, though I couldn't really figure out what it was. I finally let go of her hand and stood up. I walked towards the water, took a step into the cool foamy waves, and evaporated.

***

Ogygia never seemed to change. I wondered if that was a part of Calypso's punishment – having to deal with the same weather all day every day for an eternity. On the other hand, it was always warm and sunny, and the air was sweet and fresh with the barest trace of a breeze. I could already feel myself smiling as I walked through the gardens. It was night here too, so the moonlace was glowing bright. Calypso was nowhere in sight, so I made my way to her cottage.

I didn't make any noise as I stepped through the doorway. Calypso was curled up on the small bed in the corner under a white linen blanket.

"Calypso," I whispered quietly. "I'm back."

"Mmmm," she responded and rolled over to face me, blinking blearily.

Then I realized I had made a mistake.

It wasn't Calypso.

**Uh oh! Who do you think it is?**

**Oh, and I think everyone who reads this chapter should review, since I just had my birthday :) **


	13. Chapter 13

**WOW. Never in a million years did I think I would get more than 100 reviews! Though that may have something to do with waiting 5ish months before posting a new chapter... *looks down awkwardly* yeah... sorry about that. But anyhow you guys are awesome, and make my day! :D Thanks for the birthday wishes too. Now without further ado: chapter 13. Enjoy!**

The blonde-haired boy pushed his bangs off his face and yawned.

"Whuzzgoinon?" he slurred as he tried to sit up, only to have a spasm of pain cross his face and he slumped back down on the bed.

"Cam!"

At my voice, Cam's eyes popped open and he squinted at my face.

"Gods, Percy, is that you?" he cried, trying and failing to sit up again. There seemed to be something wrong with his chest. I did a quick analysis of his condition. His skin was bruised, and his muscles stiff – but he would be fine. Eventually. All of it only took half a second, so I barely paused before I responded.

"It's me. Hey, what happened to you? I'm so sorry there was nothing I could do back there on the quest. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Cam said with a grimace. "Well, sort of. I'm sore as anything, but I don't think I'm hurt too bad. I don't blame you at all though, honest." His expression confirmed what he said and I relaxed a little.

"Well, at least you're safe now." I looked over my shoulder to the doorway, wondering where Calypso had gotten to. "How did you get to Ogygia?"

"Where?"

"Ogygia," I repeated. "It's an enchanted island. One of Atlas's daughter's in exile here, but don't worry, Calypso is…" _Sweet, beautiful, lovely,_ "Very caring. I landed here after I blew myself out of Mount St. Helen's; Calypso nursed me back to health."

Cam nodded. He also moved his shoulders slowly, testing out the muscles. "That makes sense. I thought the beautiful girl standing over me was a dream. I guess it was real!"

I don't know why, but it bothered me a little to think of Calypso tenderly caring for another guy. Something in the pit of my stomach felt off. It seemed like I had been feeling like that a lot lately, especially after talking with Annabeth. But now wasn't the time to think about that. I had enough on my plate without worrying about my inner feelings. That could wait for the rest of eternity.

"So what happened?" I pressed.

"I – I'm actually trying to figure it out," Cam's forehead wrinkled with thought as he moved on to his legs. "But it's too fuzzy. The last thing I remember if being up high. _Really _high. Like, on top of the clouds high. I think I passed out because there wasn't enough air, but I remember falling. So I guess I landed here?"

"Ogygia doesn't exist anywhere in particular so that makes sense," I said. "But what happened to the shoes? Wait, I see them." I stared at the pair of Converse that were arranged neatly on the floor by Cam's pillow. "Close your eyes," I instructed. A second later, there was nothing left but a pile of ashes and four feebly fluttering wings.

"Um, Percy?" Cam asked after I swept the mess out of the door. "Did Patrick…"

"No. It was someone else. And I'm going to find out who, don't worry."

"Okay." With a look of relief, he sat back onto the pillows. Apparently his muscles were all in working condition. "I was afraid… well, he's my best friend, you know?"

"I –" But before I could finish my sentence, the sound of walking feet, and soft singing entered my ears. Sure enough, a few seconds later, the curtain covering the doorway was swept open, and Calypso glided into the room. Her caramel coloured hair was in a long braid, and she was wearing a floaty dress that seemed to blend in with the pile of snow white blankets she carried. If I didn't know better I would have said she was a goddess. She was singing to herself, and had a pleasant expression on her face – like she was in the middle of a dream.

Then Calypso noticed me. Her eyes widened, and the blankets tumbled out of her hands.

"Hello," she said distractedly as she scrambled to pick them up. "I am sorry Percy, I... I did not expect you here!" Stowing the blankets in a wardrobe she turned her attention to Cam, whose cheeks turned pink when she stroked the hair off his forehead and fixed his covers. Calypso was avoiding my eyes, though, and it was making me nervous.

"Is... everything alright?" I asked tentatively.

Calypso bit her lip.

"Can we talk outside, Percy?" she asked.

"Sure." I nodded to Cam and followed her out of the cottage. She walked all the way down to her moonlace garden, before turning to face me. With a start I realized there were tears in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" I reached out to touch Calypso's arm. She shivered where my fingers grazed her skin, and pulled away.

"Forgive me," she whispered. "This has never happened before. My punishment... I do not know why..." she trailed off helplessly.

A knot formed in the pit of my stomach when I realized what she meant. Beyond being kept captive on her island of Ogygia, the gods would punish Calypso further by sending her one hero every few centuries. Calypso wouldn't be able to help falling in love with the hero as she cared for him, and she would always give him the option to stay with her forever. But he would always want to return, breaking her heart. I had been one of those heroes, but things had changed when I had become immortal. It hadn't occurred to me that another demigod would arrive on Ogygia eventually, and I knew that Cam was just the beginning. Calypso's love for me would fade as time went by.

I nodded and looked out to the sea, not trusting myself to find the right words for my feelings. There was a long moment, and then Calypso said, "This is unusual. I do not know why the gods would send another hero so soon. Never has this happened before."

"I wouldn't have mattered," I said, shaking my head. "It still would have happened eventually. It's not your fault."

"But it is," she said miserably. "I knew that this was to come eventually. I should not have let you return here. It was unforgivable."

"I forgive you," I said, and I knew I meant it.

"Thank you."

I gave her a hug – one final gesture of affection. The feeling of her hands on my back was comfortable. It made me sad to know I'd probably never see her again.

"You will always be a hero, Percy," Calypso whispered in my ear before I pulled away. "They can't change that in you."

I expected the beach at Camp Half-Blood to be deserted when I returned. The campfire would be over by then, so I knew that Annabeth would have gone to bed. I didn't think I could face her after what had just happened with Calypso. Cam was going to stay on Ogygia until he was 100% better (or at least, that was his excuse for staying with Calypso), but I was going to tell Chiron he was alive to get back in the camper's good books.

As for the beach being empty, I was only half-right. Annabeth wasn't there, but someone else was.

Even though the moon was high overhead, the lady was dressed in a skimpy bathing suit and wore oversized pink sunglasses. She sat on a Victorian-style beach chair and was sipping nectar in a martini glass as she leafed through the Olympus Observer. The headline (_New Daughter of Poseidon Makes Quite a Splash!_) didn't help my mood.

I cleared my throat, and the lady looked up – her ridiculously red lips forming an 'O' in surprise.

"Why Perseus Jackson," she said innocently. "Fancy meeting you here!"

She waited for me to respond, and when I didn't she lowered her shades and gave me a seductive look. "Really, Percy, you could at least say something."

I stayed silent. One, because I hadn't quite figured out what to say and two, I was afraid if I did decide to talk, I would end up shouting.

Aphrodite waited a moment, and then put her sunglasses back on before saying, "Well it's true and you really are an official god now! Since my obvious beauty and magic girdle," she gestured to the golden sash around her waist which she used to seduce all the mortal men, "Seem to have no effect on you so far, I have to assume everything went as planned. Marvellous!"

My lips pressed together. "I should have known you were behind this."

"Now, now, be reasonable," said Aphrodite. "It's my job to make sure everything in the love department if working properly, so obviously I had to step in and set things straight."

"How? How is any of this," I waved to the ocean, meaning Calypso. "Supposed to make things better?"

Aphrodite folded her magazine and sighed. I wasn't sure if it was directed to me, or her fingernails, in which she seemed to have found a tiny flaw.

"Well if course I've already told you _that_! Why do we have to go over this every time?" she sighed, pulling a bottle of red nail polish out of nowhere. "Don't you remember the first time we met?"

I sifted back through old memories. It was when we were going to rescue Annabeth and Artemis. There was something about 'not making things easy'.

"You're telling me you did this all for Annabeth?"

Aphrodite beamed. "Of course! What have I always said? You two are destined for each other. I didn't want Miss Tragic Prisoner over there messing everything up."

I was on the verge of losing it. The breeze picked up, churning the water unsettlingly.

"So you think you can just waltz in here and do whatever you want? You seem to forget that I'm a god too here. I'm perfectly capable of choosing my own fate, thanks!"

Aphrodite sighed again. "It's always the old argument. The minor gods always think they're capable of running the world. Then they get all _upset_ when we more _experienced_ Olympians take matters into our own hands. Really Percy, you have to see the logic in this! Now get back to camp and start wooing miss Wise Girl!"

"You – you –" I couldn't think of the right insult. For the first time I understood why some of the minor gods had sided with Kronos. The Olympians could be so... so... annoying! And Aphrodite's smirk made me want to punch her pretty face.

"Okay, if you haven't noticed," I said. "Annabeth is mortal."

The goddess waved a hand dismissively. "A minor inconvenience."

"Minor!" I was almost shouting. "You're insane! How in a million years do you think that some sort of destined lo –" I stumbled on the word. "Love can happen between a mortal and a god?"

"Well I don't give away _all _my secrets now don't I? That's just the fun of it. Everyone always end up following their hearts in the end, though, and then they get their happily ever after. It's just so _cute_."

But I was only half paying attention. My previous words had just registered in my brain. Through my anger I couldn't help but feel a small shred of hope. Gods and mortals fell in love all the time. Maybe there was some way for me and Annabeth to be together if we felt that way... but no. This was Annabeth we were talking about. I gave myself a shake, my sarcasm kicking in.

"Yeah, that will definitely work on Annabeth. I'll just go up to her and say 'Hey, crazy goddess wants us to skip off into the sunset. Do you love me yet?" That would get me a punch in the face at best. I'm barely off her blacklist as it is!"

"I have been making matches for more years then you even know numbers for, Jackson," said Aphrodite with a bit of an edge. "If I want it to work, it will."

I snorted. "Okay, sure. Tell Annabeth that."

Aphrodite pursed her lips. "I was expecting you'd take this better. Evidently Miss Exiled made a bigger impact on you than I expected."

"Yeah, wow. You messed up there didn't you? Good job."

I expected the goddess to fight back. Get mad and pelt me with hearts and roses and cute little cherubs or something. I _wanted_ her to. I needed a reason to rearrange her flawless face. Instead she did the one thing that made everything worse – she spoke with pity.

"Well, think about it for a while. Deep in your heart, you know I'm right. Why? Because I always am! Now give a lady her privacy. Scat!"

Without saying a word, I turned on my heel, and stomped up the beach, making sure to aim the sand I kicked at Aphrodite's beach chair. She had no right! Her and her dumb love ideas… I arrived at the Big House but didn't bother finding Chiron to tell him Cam was alive and safe, I just sat on the porch and fumed. And when Grover found me the next morning, I was still there – my thoughts as jumbled as ever.


	14. Chapter 14

Man, did I ever need a friend right then. And the G-Man arrived right on cue with a furry hug and a steaming box of enchiladas. Breakfast, he said defensively when I pointed out it was seven in the morning.

"I couldn't help myself, Percy! I was on my way over here and there was this 24-hour Drive-Thru and the smell was just wafting out the door. . . der wush nuffing I cuh do, 'oo know?" he swallowed and held out the cardboard take-out box. "Want to try some?"

"Sure, why not?" I said, ripping a corner of the cheese-and-chili-sauce drenched tortilla. It wasn't as bad as I had expected – just really bland. I conjured up some enchilada-flavoured ambrosia of my own, which tasted a lot better.

"So what have you been up to, Percy? What have I missed?" Grover asked me as we ate.

Between bites I gave Grover the condensed version of what had just happened. When I had finished, he game me a sympathetic look.

"Yeah, goddesses can be a little. . . stubborn from time to time. They always think they're right – which I'm sure they are! They must know exactly what they're doing after years and years–"

"Grover," I said. "I don't think anyone is spying on us."

"You never know, man. It's better to be safe than sorry!"

Which I had to agree with. There had been enough cases of gods messing with my life lately that I didn't want an opportunity to tick off a few more.

"And when you think about it, Percy, Aphrodite's just doing her job here. What else would she have to do if she didn't take care of people's love lives?"

"Yeah? Has she ever pulled a trick like that on you and Juniper?"

Grover turned red. "That's different," he mumbled. "I'm a satyr, she's a shrub."

I took a bite of my ambrosia and chewed it slowly. "But her little plan for me and Annabeth, is it like a prophecy that _has_ to come true, or just something she _wants_to happen? Because considering Annabeth, well, I don't think she'd go for that."

"Percy, I've known Annabeth for long time and when she's around you she's – um," Grover suddenly looked a bit embarrassed and stuffed a big piece of enchilada in his mouth.

"What?"

Grover started to talk again, but I could barely make out what he said. Something along the lines of, ". . . the signs. . . mumble, mumble. . . everyone thinks. . . mumble, mumble. . . she said. . . boys. . . mumble. . . oblivious. . ." he swallowed and pointed. "Oh hey look, she's coming now!"

I looked. Annabeth was crossing the lawn not too far from where we sat. She didn't look any different than usual – camp t-shirt, shorts, ponytail – but after my conversation with the goddess of love last night I felt like I was seeing her again for the first time in a while. I noticed there was a single dandelion tucked behind one of her ears. Minnie had probably added it for her, and it looked cute, in a nature-y sort of way.

"Hi Annabeth!" Grover called.

She turned and shouted, "Grover!" before running over and giving him a hug. "You're just in time! I'm working on my design for Olympus right now in the volleyball courts; you should come see it. You too, Percy."

Surprised, and happy, that she had included me, we headed over to the cluster of people that surrounded Annabeth's blueprints. There were so many campers I figured the designs must be even more spectacular than I expected (and knowing Annabeth, my expectations were pretty high), but as we got close I realized they were looking at something else. From the back of Daedalus's laptop, fluorescent green lines were pulsing in every direction, tracing out a miniature holographic plan of the new Olympus.

"It's a projector," Annabeth explained. "One of Daedalus's inventions. I can scan my blueprints into the computer and it creates a three-dimensional digital copy, organizing all of the separate structures into one large area. It's pretty simple, really."

"But still totally awesome." I added.

She punched me playfully on the arm. "I hope you're talking about my architecture Seaweed Brain."

"Oh, of course," I said, grinning. "I'm gonna go take a closer look."

Annabeth had concentrated on the central section of Olympus where the temples and gardens of the main gods were located. A couple of mansions and statues were sketched out with detail, but most were just faint shadows showing where something would be located. Above every structure was a floating circle containing the symbol of the god it would belong to. I counted them as I walked down the tiny glowing street: lightning for Zeus, trident for Poseidon, owl for Athena, Ares, Dionysus, Hermes, Hestia, Demeter, Athena, Hephaestus, Zeus, Artemis, Hera, Apollo, yet another Athena (figures), Iris, Nemesis, Pos–

No, it wasn't Poseidon. On first glance, the crashing waves made me think of the sea god, but instead of a trident, they surrounded a sword. _Riptide._ It was one of the only mansions that was sketched in detail (save for the many monuments to Athena) so I bent down to get a better look.

Man, was this the type of place that I would want to live in! It was big and airy, with abalone walls that were engraved with scenes of epic battles between heroes and monsters, myself and Kronos included. Instead of gardens there was a tiny ocean, complete with a sandy shore and a refreshment cabana shaped like a giant periwinkle shell. I felt a grin spread across my face as I looked it over.

Of course, it was also the perfect moment for someone to come over and ruin the effect.

"Ah, your house is all the way over here?" said Mr. D. "Poor you. Mine is up front and centre in case you haven't noticed. That Annie girl said the walls are going to be made entirely of woven grape vines. Great idea if you ask me which, of course, she hasn't done yet. Pity. I would really like an input on my _own_ temple, not that I'll have much chance to use it while I'm at this pigsty of a place."

"Poor you," I said. "It's sucks that even though _I'm_ their god, _you're_ the one that's stuck teaching them."

Mr. D stared at me for a moment, and then the corner of his mouth twitched.

"I think I preferred it when you were terrified of me," he said. "However, this is much more entertaining. Perhaps it wasn't such a bad idea after all."

Rolling my eyes, I made my way back to where Grover was. Chironhad joined him, followed by a disheveled Minnie. She had dark circles under her eyes and her hair looked like it could be housing a litter of baby squirrels. I wondered if she had slept at all last night. Chiron, however, didn't seem to notice.

"Grover," he said pleasantly. "Good to have you back. Is everything set for the new school year?"

"Of course," Grover replied, a little smugly. "I've got the rest of the satyrs enrolled in classes across the country and ready to hunt down some half-bloods."

"Ah, good man – er, goat. Are there any suspected demigods?"

"Not many. There's a boy in Michigan and a pair of twins from Florida we're keeping a special eye on, but that's all for now."

His words had an instant effect on Minnie. I had been watching her stare bleary-eyed at the ground, but at the word "Florida" her head snapped up and a second later her eyes were filled with tears.

"Well at least it's better than nothing," Chiron was saying. "I have a feeling that plenty of new demigods will be turning up now that – my dear, what's wrong?"

"Hm?"

"You're crying."

"Really?" Minnie rubbed her eyes and looked shocked to find tears on her fingers. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry!" I knelt down and put a hand on her shoulder. "Is it the nightmares?"

My sister started to shake her head, and then hesitated.

"Not really," she said. "Last night they didn't know I was watching so I was okay – Zeus and the war guy. They were angry about you. . . and me."

I felt a twist in my stomach. This wasn't the first time Zeus had held a grudge against me, and I think I was near the top of Ares' eternal hit list – but I could take care of myself. My sister was another thing.

"I was delusional when I hoped the gods might be peaceful for a time after winning the war," Chiron said shaking his head. "You should have spoken to someone. Demigod dreams should not be treated lightly."

"I _know_," Minnie said. "But I thought you knew already. That lightning bolt almost killed me! It's obvious Zeus is mad."

We all looked up as the clouds rumbled in approval.

"It may be obvious, but you still have to be careful," said Chiron. "Percy might not be around to save you this time."

My sister looked and me, and then nodded. "I guess you're right."

"So why were you upset?" I asked.

"Oh," Minnie blushed. "It's just that when Grover mentioned Florida I realized I missed. . . Mom."

She looked embarrassed, like we would punish her for feeling a little homesick. Of course, no one would ever do that. We all knew what it felt like to be away from your family, and not know if a monster or enraged god would get to you before you saw them again. Or at least, _I_ did. That brought my thoughts around to my Mom. I hadn't seen her since the battle ended, and I felt a pang in my chest when I thought about the letter she had sent me. I missed her a lot.

Chiron shook his head.

"I'm afraid it's too dangerous to travel back home, Minnie. You're safe here at Camp Half-Blood but I'm sure you know the menaces that lurk outside our boundaries."

Minnie nodded dejectedly, but I had other ideas. This was _my_ domain after all.

"Does anyone have a drachma?" I asked.

Grover handed one over with a dubious expression.

"I know what you're thinking," he warned. "Are you sure it's going to work?"

I didn't answer. Instead, I ran over and snatched the hose from a nymph watering the grass on the volleyball courts.

"Hey!" she shrieked as I turned it on full-blast. "Don't waste our water!"

But I only needed it for a second. The morning sun reflected off the droplets, creating a misty rainbow. With my other hand I clutched the gold coin.

"O Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, please – "

"Yes?"

I jumped. Iris herself appeared at my side, looked as bored as ever.

"You don't need to go through _that_ whole ritual," she said. "I'll hear you if you call me. I'm assuming you need a message delivered via my rainbow? Because gods forbid, someone would actually want to see _me_ for a change."

I made a mental note to invite Iris over for a swim once I moved into my mansion.

"Um, yeah, my sister wants to talk to someone and I was hoping you'd be able to help me. . . sorry?"

"Forget it. It's fine. No big deal. I'm used to it. Whatever," Iris waved a hand. "Is that her?" she pointed to Minnie who was listening, fascinated, as Grover played a tune on his reed pipes.

"Yeah. She really misses her mom in Florida, so I was hoping you'd be able to contact of her."

"An average mortal? Out of the question." Iris tossed her long, dark hair.

I crossed my arms. "Come on, please? I can pay you whatever you want."

"It's not _that_," she replied. "I carry messages as a favour to gods and half-bloods; it's not part of my job description. Do you know how many humans are in the world?"

"Um," I had never been one of those kids who remembered stuff after an exam. Heck, I barely remembered it _during_ an exam. Fortunately, the goddess answered her own question.

"Five billion, give or take a few. That's a lot of people to look through before I find the right one. And for what? What if this lady can't even see through that Mist? Then what?"

I didn't know the answer, but I had a feeling that seeing Poseidon as a god was what brought him to Minnie's mother in the first place.

"Can't it hurt to try?"

"Yes, it will be a disgusting waste of my time."

"You're a goddess; you have all the time in the world!"

We locked eyes for a moment and then Iris threw up her hands. "Sure, why not? It's not like I have more interesting things to do."

"Great," I said, relieved. "Now I don't have any more money with me at the moment. . ."

"I'll just take this," in one swift movement, Iris snatched Grover's drachma from my hand. "And you can owe me a favour."

I took a second to think about this. Usually I would have said yes without hesitation, but I knew that immortals took favours a lot more seriously than the average guy. I had heard legends about whole empires that had crumbled because one god owed another. But Iris seemed nice enough, so I said, "Okay, it's a deal."

She looked a bit surprised, but pleased, and not in a sinister way. "Be careful young god," she said. "In a century or so, I might decide to take advantage of that."

**Thoughts, comments, praise, constructive criticism, flames... review please! :)**


	15. Chapter 15

**Guess what? I'm back. :)**

When I told Minnie we would be able to talk to her mom, she could have been a daughter of Apollo the way her face lit up. Speaking of which, boy would Apollo and Iris have made a good pair. Not that I was learning anything from the particular goddess that was messing up my life, but I had never seen someone so theatrical in a long time. I guess Iris hadn't had a chance to show off lately, because she made a big production out of conjuring the shimmery mist for the Iris message. Let's just say it included a lot of 'Ohm'ing.

But the wait was worth it because suddenly the cloud of mist wasn't a cloud anymore, it was the inside of a shop.

It looked like your typical tacky tourist trap from the front section. There were hats and water bottles and keychains all with the "Orange Beach, Florida" logo and some dancing citrus fruit in sunglasses. But Minnie's mother had expanded the back to some much more high-quality items. There were brand-name bathing suits, shirts, frayed shorts and even some local art. Ms. Coulter was trying to sell the lone customer a blown glass starfish when we appeared.

I could tell it was Minnie's mom immediately. The family resemblance was remarkable. Both Coulters had the same dark curly hair and sun-kissed cheeks; however, Minnie's eyes were a foamy green compared to her mother's hazel. The rest of her body was obscured by the customer, who, thankfully, had her back to us. She hadn't noticed us yet, but when she did I trusted her to keep it together until the lady left. The customer wouldn't be able to see us, but just in case...

"… completely handmade right here in town!" Ms. Coulter was saying, "He has such attention to detail. Just see how the colours – "

She looked to the customer and caught sight of the Iris message over the lady's shoulder. Her jaw dropped then...

_Smash!_

The starfish tumbled from her fingers and shattered on the floor. Ms. Coulter looked like she has just been hit by a school bus, her eyes focused on Minnie.

"Oh my goodness!" The customer said. "Are you alright? I –" she turned around. I winced, waiting to see if there would be a reaction...

_Smash!_

"Percy?"

"Mom!"

"Mommy!" shouted Minnie, shocked despite everything.

"Oh my goodness, Minnie!"

"What are you doing here?"

"I forgot you were in Florida!"

"You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"I'm okay! See?"

"Don't you ever do that to me again young lady."

"I'm so sorry, Paul just knew how everything had been getting to me..."

"I missed you so much."

"He thought a vacation would be good for me."

"It's okay! I've been busy here."

"I love you momma!"

"I'm so proud of you."

"_Hem hem._"

We all turned at Iris' cough. And then took a few steps back. The four of us were so close to the screen of mist our faces were practically touching. I just wanted to jump right through the mirage and give my mom a big hug.

"I may be going crazy," Ms. Coulter said, turning to Mom with an entire new facial expression. "But does that mean you know about all this too?"

"Do I ever," Mom said with a small smile.

"Would you like to have coffee later or something? I'd love to talk. You have no idea what this has been like."

"Actually, I think I do!"

And then suddenly in pure girlish fashion they were laughing and looking like they'd found their new best friend. I caught Grover's eye; he was grinning mischievously. We both knew what was coming.

"Being a single mom is hard. Especially when your _baby_," Ms. Coulter looked poignantly at Minnie. "Is carrying a dagger and running off to battle monsters all alone."

"Luckily enough I've found Paul to keep me company," Mom replied. "Who was your –"

"Minnie," I said.

" – Minnie's father?"

Ms. Coulter blushed.

"You've probably heard of him," she said. "He's pretty popular around here, at least. The god of the sea..."

"Poseidon," Mom finished

"Why, yes! Don't tell me..." She looked at the group of us at Camp Half-Blood. Grover winked.

Both ladies turned to fully face each other. Their eyes narrowed as they looked the other up and down. Then Chiron cleared his throat, both ladies blinked, smiled, and everything went back to how it had been before.

"You know," Mom mused, her eyes flicking between my sister and I. "I think I ever see the family resemblance."

Ms. Coulter studied my face. "They have the same eyes." Then she turned to Minnie and bent down to look her daughter in the eye.

"Do you want to stay here?" she asked. " Because if you to come home, I'm sure we can find a way to keep you safe from the monsters. I just don't want you running away again, love."

"I want to stay," Minnie said. "I think. I like it here. And then when I come home I'll know how to fight, right?"

By the expression on Ms. Coulter's face, I wasn't sure if she necessarily wanted her baby to know how to fight. I couldn't understand why. It would be super handy for deterring bullies, creepy old men, and the monster specialty of the day_._ She only sighed and turned to Chiron. Rachel aside, I had never seen a mortal so not fazed by the centaur. Things must have been pretty rough in Florida.

"Are you in charge here?" she asked. "Is that okay?"

The camp director nodded. "Certainly. Many of our campers come here for the summer and return home for the school year. You and Minnie can assess at the end of August if it is safe for her in Florida."

"Okay," she looked relieved. "You'll be good Minnie, dear, right?"

"Of_ course_, Mommy."

"You too, Percy," Mom added. "Find some balance in your life if you can. Don't let all the responsibility – " she sniffed. "Oh, I wish I could give you a hug. You've grown up so fast!"

"Love you, Mom. I'll make sure Paul takes care of you."

"Love you too, Percy."

"Bye Mommy!"

"Bye Minnie, dear," Ms. Coulter said as she began to fade. "Don't go looking for trouble. Don't get into fights! Always have a weapon on you. Get lots of sleep. Don't forget – "

She was cut off as the last bit of the message evaporated.

"Mothers," Iris said. She rolled her eyes as if that was enough explanation.

"Thanks missus... um, lady... your highness," Minnie said reverently.

"No problem kiddo. Give me a call anytime you need a message. Providing you've got some gold, of course. And I'll be seeing _you_ later," she added to me before disappearing.

A few campers had been watching the activity from a distance away, but most were still fascinated with Annabeth's blueprints. One guy suggested she put in a temple for the demigods since they had been the ones to protect Olympus. Mr. D appeared just in time to give him a smack upside the head. Then he scurried away howling and pleading 'I'm sorry father! I didn't mean to!' to some unknown force.

Annabeth decided to pack up soon after this and came over to where Chiron and I were discussing the new demigods that would be arriving this school year.

"I was wondering," she said. "If I'd be able to go visit Olympus sometime soon? I'm not going to be able to visualize anything completely without seeing the actual area."

Chiron pulled at his beard. "We might be able to arrange that. It would take some time though. We'd need to – "

"Or I could take her?"

Both looked at me.

"I mean, I'm the god of heroes, right? It's my responsibility to make sure Annabeth has the opportunities she needs if she's going to design all of freaking Olympus."

"I see no problem with that," Chiron said. "You two can leave in the morning, provided that Annabeth won't be missing any important training."

Annabeth shook her head and grinned at me. My fingertips began to tingle.

"I can take us there and back," I said. "So Argus can have a break."

Chiron chuckled. "He will be grateful for that."

"Thanks Percy," Annabeth said. She moved forward like she was going to hug me, then decided against it and turned away. "I've got an Ancient Greek class to teach now. See you tonight!"

The rest of the day passed in a blur. I made plans with Chiron and Grover, walked Ms. O'Leary, taught a sword-fighting class, saved some little guys from an Ares bully that I was going to have to talk to Clarisse about, and watched Athena, Apollo, Hephaestus and Demeter (with a little help from my Poseidon sister) bring home the victory during Capture the Flag.

But the mood was a little less celebratory when I looked in on Minnie's dreams that night. I was right. Things had been simmering under the surface.


End file.
